Man cleared of baby drink neglect

Paul Thomas admitted he had drunk a litre of vodka

A man who drank a bottle of vodka before looking after his partner's newborn son has been cleared of cruelty to a child by wilful neglect.

Warren Thomas was found dead on the floor next to the sofa where Paul Henry Thomas had fallen asleep.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court heard Mr Thomas may have been up to five times over the legal limit for driving.

But the 30-year-old, who broke down in tears as he was cleared, denied he had been drunk.

Tests by a pathologist could not determine the cause of the one-month-old baby's death and he may have fallen victim to sudden infant death syndrome.

The court had heard how Warren's mother, Laura Owen, was forced to slap Mr Thomas to revive him after discovering the dead baby on the floor on 4 January this year.

Denials

Ms Owen and her other child moved into Mr Thomas's flat in the Fforestfach area of Swansea after Warren was born in December 2007.

Giving evidence he repeatedly denied that he had been drinking while looking after the baby.

He also insisted he was so used to consuming large amounts of alcohol that even if he had been drinking over the crucial period it would have had no effect.

The court heard Mr Thomas had volunteered to feed Warren during the night to allow Ms Owen to catch up on sleep.

She had awoken at 0300 GMT to find Mr Thomas bottle-feeding the baby and he had told her to return to bed. Four hours later the baby was dead.

Mr Thomas told the jury he had drunk almost a full bottle of vodka between 1600 GMT and 2000 GMT on the evening in question.

He said he had previously been drinking two bottles of vodka a day and had started to cut down after Warren's birth.

He denied drinking any alcohol after Ms Owen had gone to bed but claimed that even if he had it would not have made him drunk.

He insisted that having consumed the vodka earlier in the evening he felt neither drunk nor sleepy as a result of alcohol.

The prosecution claimed that while looking after Warren Mr Thomas had continued to drink.