November 2016 Father jailed for leaving his baby son with two broken bones in attack A father who was “unprepared” for parenthood has been jailed for leaving his baby son with two broken bones in an attack. Single parent Adam Tate only took the little boy to hospital an estimated 12 hours after assaulting the toddler and then lied to medical staff about how his son was hurt. He suffered a broken right shin bone and a broken metatarsal in his left foot. Tate, aged 26, of Canterbury Drive, Bury, was imprisoned for two years and nine months at Bolton Crown Court after changing his plea to admit a single charge of child cruelty on the first day of his trial. Jailing him, Mr Recorder Atherton said: “This is more than ill-treatment. This is assault.” The court heard the boy’s mother denied Tate was the father and he was not present at the birth in February 2013 or involved in his son’s upbringing. Just three months later Nottinghamshire County Council removed the child from the mother’s care and got in touch with Tate. The defendant took a DNA test to confirm paternity, satisfied assessments and gained custody of his baby son. He secured a residency order for the youngster to live with him in a flat with his sister in Downham Gardens in Prestwich. The boy was 15 months old when Tate took him to North Manchester General Hospital at midnight on June 26 2014 saying his son could not put weight on his feet and was reluctant to walk or crawl. Prosecutor Paul Dockery said Tate told doctors he had seen “his son’s leg caught between a wooden bars of the cot and an adjacent set of drawers”. But Mr Dockery said medics disbelieved the defendant’s account. One described the motion needed for the youngster to sustain such injuries “as if it was like a yank to the leg against the body weight, requiring some force” and another “a direct blow or forcibly twisting the leg”. Mr Dockery said: “Both of these would have been significantly painful and the child would have been in pain, crying, measured in 10s of minutes. The boy is now three years old and has been adopted.