A grieving Fife father whose daughter tragically died after being shaken by his ex-partner’s boyfriend has been jailed for 20 months following a botched robbery attempt.
Kevin Flood, 30, who lost his five-month-old daughter Hayley Davidson back in 2016, was caught red-handed as he tried to break into a convenience store in Kirkcaldy just after midnight on December 5 last year.
Flood unwittingly raised the alarm at the Premier Bains shop in St Clair Street due to the level of noise he was making as he tried to gain entry using a knife and screwdriver.
A neighbour living above the premises, who had been watching a film at the time, initially thought nothing of the banging, thinking it was a late delivery.
But she soon realised it was something more sinister when she eventually went down to take a look at what was causing the racket and saw the middle shutter had been unusually lowered.
Flood, who had been wearing a balaclava during the attempted break-in, then struggled violently with police officers who arrived to take him into custody.
Flood, who appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court via video link from HMP Addiewell, has been in and out of prison since the death of his daughter Hayley, who died in hospital after being found at a house in Buckhaven on February 14, 2016.
Gordon McKay, 38, was originally been charged with the infant’s murder but at the High Court in Livingston he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Hayley Davidson’s killer Gordon McKay jailed for seven and a half years
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard how Flood’s efforts to gain entry to the Premier store did not go unnoticed by a woman living above the property, and she eventually went downstairs at around 12.01am on the night in question to see what was making so much noise.
Police were called and Flood, who had been between the shop’s front door and the outer shutter, was seen with a screwdriver in his right hand and appeared to be trying to hide a knife in his left hand.
Fiscal Ronnie Hay told the court that a struggle then ensued in the confined space between door and shutter, during which Flood “lashed out with his arms and kicked out with his feet”.
Defence solicitor Ian Houston said his client had been under the effects of Valium at the time of the offence and appeared to be “oblivious” to what he was doing.
“He was caught red-handed – the knife and screwdriver were housebreaking implements and he was using them to force open the door,” the solicitor added.
“He’s been in and out of prison for a long time and since the age of 12 he was put into a secure unit where he remained until he was 16.
“So to a large extent he’s pretty institutionalised.”
Sheriff Keith O’Mahony sentenced Flood to a cumulative sentence of 20 months’ imprisonment.