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A twisted RAF engineer left his three-month-old son with brain injuries that could last a lifetime.
Doctors told the baby’s family ‘several times’ that the child ‘may die’ and that the next 48 hours were crucial to his survival.
The child had been taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in September 2019 with a brain haemorrhage, detached retina and multiple broken ribs.
Despite causing the life-threatening injuries, Richard Hardwick – who has since been convicted of unrelated sex offences – will only have to spend the next 22 months in prison after the Crown Prosecution Service charged him with causing grievous bodily harm rather than a more serious assault charge.
A furious judge Recorder John Hardy KC told prosecutor Corinne Bramwell: “It should have been a section 18 [wounding with intent] if not an attempted murder.” He later said: “As a human being it sticks in my gut.”
The court heard Hardwick, who served in the RAF for two decades and was based at Benson, tried to pile the blame on everyone but himself, telling the police when he was arrested that his wife and a childminder were the main carers.
Jailing him for just three years and nine months at Oxford Crown Court on Friday afternoon – the maximum sentence once credit for his early guilty plea was deducted – Recorder Hardy said: “The single count on the indictment to which you have pleaded guilty compels me to sentence you to a term of imprisonment that members of the public would rightly regard as woefully inadequate for this horrific crime.
“I am at a loss to understand why other, more serious charges were not preferred against you.”
Ms Bramwell told the court that the boy was first admitted to hospital on September 2, 2019, with ‘very severe’ injuries that a doctor believed were caused by shaking or brute force.
On September 14, he was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital with what turned out to be a bleed on the brain that was ‘highly suggestive of shaking’. He had ‘approximately seven’ broken ribs, a detached retina and ‘significant’ bruising.
The child had ‘various significant educational issues as a result of the injuries he sustained’. At the age of two he was assessed to have the speech and language skills of a baby.
In a victim personal statement, from which parts were read to the court by the judge, a family member spoke of the terrible impact the defendant’s stringing out the court process had had. She described his offending as a ‘vile, unthinkable crime’.
Turning to the public gallery, where the boy’s relative was seated with a friend, Recorder Hardy said: “This court cannot let this case pass without observing that [the victim] has had the most outstanding love and care and attention from those who now look after him.”
The judge questioned why the Crown Prosecution Service had charged Hardwick with causing grievous bodily harm, which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.
Had a more serious charge been laid, the judge said he could have found Hardwick a ‘dangerous’ offender and imposed an extended sentence. That would have resulted in the defendant spending more of his sentence in custody before a lengthy period out on licence and supervised by the probation service.
The conditions for an extended sentence were ‘manifestly met’, Recorder Hardy said. He posed a ‘significant risk to members of the public’.
However, because he could not lawfully pass a jail sentence of more than four years once credit for the guilty plea was taken into account, the judge was unable to impose an extended sentence.
Mitigating, Julian Lynch said his client had recognised – albeit late – the ‘true gravity and appalling nature’ of what he had done. Hardwick had suffered a mental breakdown and struggled with ‘unplanned outbursts’.
Mr Lynch questioned the almost three-year delay in the police and Crown Prosecution Service charging his client with GBH.
Told that the defendant wished to apologise, Recorder Hardy said the defendant should keep any apology had had for his family ‘to himself’.
“No apology can possibly do anything to mitigate an offence of this nature,” he spat.
Hardwick, of HMP Northumberland, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing grievous bodily harm. He is currently serving a sentence, due to expire next year, for sexual offences – that case was not detailed by the prosecutor.
Following the hearing, the boy's relative said of the 'giggly' child: "He was absolutely adorable. Everybody fell in love with him."
Asked whether she felt the child had received justice, she said: "No. He nearly killed a baby; there are drug dealers who get much longer sentences."