Man, 33, is found guilty of murdering his teenage girlfriend’s six-month-old baby boy after shaking him to death just a week after they first met
A man who shook his young girlfriend’s baby to death a week after meeting him faced a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty of murder.
Kieran Humphreys, 33, had to look after 19-year-old Saskia Woodbridge’s son Archie when he went out to get his nails done.
While he was away, he lost his temper with the teething six-month-old and ‘grabbed and shook’ him.
The callous killer then tried to ‘save his own life’ by convincing other people – including his ‘naive’ young lover – to help him, claiming he had not been left alone with Archie.
Opening the trial last month, prosecutor Charlotte Newell KC said: ‘It turns out that [Archie] He suffered a fatal injury; only when in the care of Kieran Humphreys was he forcefully grasped and shaken.
‘She offered no alternative explanation as to how and why this otherwise healthy baby died while in her sole care.’
Humphreys has now been found guilty by a jury of murder and child cruelty.
His Honor Judge Morris remanded him in custody and told him the minimum sentence he would serve under the mandatory life sentence would be determined when he was sentenced at a date to be determined.
Kieran Humphreys, 33, shook to death six-month-old Archie Woodbridge, who was left to be looked after by his mother Saskia, then 19.
The court heard Humphreys “became friends” with Miss Woodbridge after meeting her in a store on February 2, 2024.
He ‘showed interest’ in her and Archie and made them believe that he would ‘take care’ of them and be their ‘savior’.
Miss Newell told the jury that Miss Woodbridge was “fascinated with this old man” and left Archie in his care at a friend’s house in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, when she went to the nail salon on February 9.
Luton Crown Court heard that unemployed Humphreys, who lives in the town, had been playing Call of Duty on Xbox “throughout the night” and was furious at the baby in his absence.
Evidence showed Archie was ‘grabbed and shaken’, leading to fatal brain injury
Instead of calling 999, Humphreys and her friend Karen Smith waited for Miss Woodbridge to return and took the baby to a nearby relative’s house before calling paramedics.
The hearing heard Mrs Woodbridge, now 20 and living in Leighton Buzzard, told the 999 operator that her son was ‘blue’ and not breathing.
Paramedics arrived and Archie was taken to hospital where he died the next day.
Teething Archie suffered fatal brain damage and died in hospital the day after the attack.
Humphreys ‘showed a lot of interest’ in Saskia Woodbridge and her son Archie, leading him to believe that Saskia Woodbridge and her son Archie would ‘take care’ of them and be their ‘savior’
Cowardly Humphreys tried to ‘save his own life’ by getting others, including Archie’s ‘gullible’ mother, to tell him he wasn’t alone with the boy
Humphreys later claimed to police that the boy’s arms suddenly “drooped completely” and he “panicked”.
‘I didn’t do anything wrong. ‘I would never hurt a child,’ he told them.
‘I love that child like my own child. He didn’t fall, or get crushed, or whatever you want to call it… he didn’t hurt my arms.
‘It wasn’t me. ‘All I did was try to save that child.’
Ms Woodbridge told officers Humphreys, her mother Sharon and Smith ‘lied about what happened and when it happened’.
He had “put pressure” on Humphreys to avoid suggesting that he was “solely responsible for Archie”.
Miss Newell told jurors: ‘Kieran Humphreys’ priority from the outset was to save his own life, regardless of the welfare of the child.’
Smith, 40, of Houghton Regis, his partner Sam Wyatt, 36, and Sharon Humphreys, 59, admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Mr Justice Morris said they would be sentenced at the same time as Humphreys, who pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Speaking after the hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Gardner, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said he hoped the guilty verdicts would bring ‘some justice and peace’ to Archie’s family.
He added: ‘This was an extremely sad case where a defenseless baby lost his life at the hands of someone who was supposed to be looking after him.
‘Kieran Humphreys’ actions clearly reveal a self-serving approach; for his main concern was to save himself rather than prioritizing Archie’s welfare by trying to cover Archie’s tracks.’
