A Dundee 23-year-old has admitted carrying out a life-endangering attack on a new-born baby.
First offender Jay Dixon, 23, pled guilty to two courses of domestic abuse towards partners, as well as neglecting and seriously assaulting the baby, who was less than a month old.
He had initially been charged with attempting to murder the infant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Dixon unexpectedly tendered the guilty plea to the lesser charges on the day his trial was due to start at the High Court in Stirling.
Dismissing the jury, Judge Farquharson said: “Unexpectedly, the accused indicated his position changed.
“The accused has pled guilty to a series of extremely serious charges.”
His case will recall next week for an agreed narrative of his offending to be disclosed.
He will remain remanded at HMP Perth in the meantime.
Mistreated baby
In 2023, Dixon wilfully ill-treated and exposed to danger a child, no older than a month, in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health.
Dixon shouted at him, handled him in a manner which was rough and inappropriate for his age and failed to support his head and neck.
He lifted the boy above his head and threw him upwards, causing the child’s head to strike the ceiling, injuring him.
He lifted the infant by his ankles, suspended him upside down and placed him on clothing within a washing basket on a table, whereby he fell to the floor and sustained another injury.
Dixon also admitted assaulting the baby in Dundee on various occasions in the space of a month.
He compressed the boy’s chest and seized and lifted him by the neck, compressing it, causing his breathing to be restricted.
Dixon shook him, threw him onto a bed, placed his head in water and put talcum powder on his head and body.
This was all to the boy’s injury and put his life in danger.
Controlling domestic abuse
Dixon also admitted a course of domestic abuse perpetrated towards a woman at various locations in Dundee in 2021.
He admitted shouting at her, uttering derogatory remarks towards her and accusing her of infidelity.
Dixon controlled her appearance, whereabouts and with whom she had contact.
He telephoned her, sent her messages, punched walls and forced her outside in her underwear and threw her iPad out a window and down a flight of stairs.
While on bail for that catalogue of offending, Dixon carried out another year-long campaign of abuse towards a second partner, starting in 2022, at various addresses in Dundee and the Travelodge at Broxden, Perth.
He shouted at her, made derogatory remarks, accused her of infidelity and threatened to harm her if she ended their relationship.
He controlled her appearance and controlled with whom she had contact and her use of her mobile phone, social media, emails and finances.
He damaged her mobile phones belonging and compelled her to share a phone with him.
Axe, machete and knives
Dixon threatened to harm a child, locked doors to prevent the woman and a child from leaving and forced open a locked door.
He threatened to harm the woman and the tot if she attempted to leave and punched, struck and kicked walls, doors and cupboards and struck a cupboard door with an axe, damaging it.
Dixon admitted he presented her with knives and encouraged her to harm herself, brandished knives, a machete, a piece of wood and a baseball bat at her and threatened her with them.
He seized her by the body, removed a room key from her, struck her on the head, placed his hand over her mouth, pushed her body, causing her to strike a chair and fall to the ground.
Dixon also deprived the woman of medication, pushed her onto a bed, punched her on the head and body, bit her finger then seized her mobile phone and threw it.
He tried to remove her mobile phone from her, punched a lamp, spat on her, threw mobile telephones, remote controls and other items.
These struck her head before Dixon pinned her against a wall.
He also instructed the woman, who was left injured, not to disclose his behaviour.
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