Infant died after repeated beatings

The child was abused at a cottage in Aberdeenshire

The life of a 13-month-old girl was snuffed out by a brutal man and a mother who failed to protect her, a court heard.

Andrea Bone and her ex-partner Sandy McClure had both denied murdering Carla-Nicole Bone at a remote cottage in Aberdeenshire in May.

Bone was found guilty of culpable homicide, while the jury also rejected pleas in mitigation for McClure, who subjected the child to unimaginable torture and was found guilty of murder.

It was a side of him I have never seen, he was like evil. His face was full of evil, it wasn't like him

Andrea Bone, child's mother

The jury at the High Court in Stonehaven heard that the baby girl endured cruel and sustained abuse in the months leading up to her death.

McClure force-fed her, holding the nostrils of the child and made her stand unsupported for long periods in an attempt to get her to walk.

Bone said McClure would scoop up her vomit from her bib and put it back on her plate.

Witnesses said the child would become "extremely distressed" when she tried to use a baby-walker and was dressed in dirty clothes in the caravan where the family lived until shortly before she died.

The couple moved to a farm cottage in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, where the abuse continued.

Carla-Nicole suffered a spate of attacks

McClure flung her from wall to wall "like a pendulum", splitting her skull, because she was unable to keep her balance.

Jason Durrand, 16, a friend of the couple, told the High Court in Stonehaven: "Sandy started hitting her on the legs. He picked her up and he banged her against the wall."

Bone later told police her daughter was being swung "like a pendulum", on 13 May, adding: "Her head was hitting the wall."

McClure, Bone and Mr Durrand rushed the toddler to Jubilee Hospital in Huntly after she went limp.

She was transferred to the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital.

'Fatal child abuse'

Doctors found the unconscious child was covered in bruises and had suffered a fractured skull and swelling of the brain.

Despite the efforts of surgeons, she died when her life support machine was switched off.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Elizabeth Myerscough told the court she had "no doubt" the child was a victim of "fatal child abuse".

A post-mortem examination uncovered bruises to her face, forehead, around her jaw, the left side of her torso and her back.

Dr James Grieve, a senior lecturer in forensic medicine at Aberdeen University, said Carla-Nicole's brain had been damaged by being shaken and knocked against hard objects such as a floor or piece of furniture.

McClure said he was disciplining the child

In his police interviews McClure, 27, admitted giving the child "a tap" to correct her, but denied he had ever been "heavy-handed".

He said: "When a child is young and learning to walk, it is necessary sometimes to give them a tap if they misbehave."

"It was the way I was brought up and it never really did me any harm."

In court, Bone, 20, described her partner as "evil" and said she hated him because he had killed her daughter.

She said she had not intervened because she was scared of McClure.

Haunted by screams

She told the court: "I remember Sandy having his fingers around her throat and dragging her up the wall, then smacking her against the wall really, really hard - you could actually feel it coming out at you.

"Her face was facing the wall and he was swinging her from side to side like a grandfather clock.

"It was a side of him I have never seen, he was like evil. His face was full of evil, it wasn't like him."

She added that she was haunted by the noise of her child's screams.

Andrea Bone: Watched McClure attack child

"I hear it in my head every night," she said.

When she was asked why she had done nothing to protect her baby from McClure's assaults, Bone said: "He's much bigger than me, he's got firmer hands than me. He scares me at times."

The court heard Bone was assessed by a psychologist as being of low intelligence and suffered from a personality disorder.

Professor David Cooke said: "We are dealing here with a lady whose low level of intellectual functions is such that it will lead to her inability to make decisions in the heat of the moment."

However, advocate Depute Drew McKenzie said there was "no evidence" of distress on Bone's part before the day of her daughter's death.

He said: "This is a classic situation where she accepts in the witness box on oath that she did and said nothing."