Drug addict guilty of killing a 15-month-old infant after sustained campaign of ‘sadistic’ abuse

A cocaine-riding ex-guard has been found guilty of killing his girlfriend’s young son after a campaign of ‘sadistic’ abuse that included cutting off a child’s genitals and culminating in him being rocked to death.

The Old Bailey heard drug addict Jake Drummond, 33, who smoked 10 or 15 cannabis a day, shook and beat 15-month-old Jacob Lennon as early as August 27, 2019, leaving him with a face like a ‘panda’. .

In the weeks prior, Jacob had suffered more injuries to his face, body and genitals while the boy’s mother, Louise Lennon, 32, failed to stop it, jurors were told.

Sick patient Drummond, who renames the boy’s bedroom the “torture room,” faces a life sentence.

Five days before the murder, Drummond sent her a sinister message that he was putting Jacob in a “torture room,” a reference to his bedroom, the jury heard.

It followed a meme of Hollywood actor Ben Stiller in Happy Gilmore with the quote: “Now you’re going to sleep or I’m going to put you to sleep.”

In another letter, Lennon referred to Jacob as looking “a little crazy” because of his bruises.

The couple denied any wrongdoing and blamed each other for Jacob’s horrific injuries.

After a trial at the Old Bailey, Drummond is found guilty of murder and of wounding Jacob with intent.

Lennon, 32, was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child after he earlier admitted child cruelty.

The court heard how social services placed Jacob under the child protection scheme under an emotional abuse category in December 2018.

But on August 20, 2019, Lennon lied to her social worker by saying she was on holiday in Hastings to skip a planned visit.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Sally O’Neill K.S.

Drummond was frustrated that Jacob stayed in bed with him and Lennon instead of in his bed as the defendant suffered from insomnia due to his cocaine habit.

The day before the fatal attack, Drummond was also angry at having to go to a police station after an ex-girlfriend accused him of harassing her in a way that ‘doesn’t amount to obsession’.

Early the next day, Jacob was pulled out of bed, shaken and beaten so badly that he passed out, the jurors were told.

Afterwards, Lennon fabricates a story to the emergency services that Jacob had fallen out of bed.

She also alleged that he had stumbled on the way from a supermarket back to their flat in Roehampton, southwest London, days earlier.

Medics found that Jacob’s eyes were so swollen they couldn’t open them and he looked like a panda.

He had more bruising on his forehead, temples and cheeks and his skull was described as soft and spongy.

Jacob, who later found to have traces of cocaine in his system, was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead after just over an hour.

An autopsy revealed that he died from a fatal head injury, likely as a result of hitting a blunt surface while shaking.

Some of his injuries were sustained days or weeks before the latest attack.

Mrs O’Neill told the jury: “There were 20 marks of recent injury on Jacob’s head, face and neck, 11 on his upper limbs, seven on his lower limbs and seven on his torso.”

The pathologist identified a 3-cm cut in Jacob’s penis from “hard pinching” or “biting” and a wound to his scrotum.

The public prosecutor said: “The scrotal injury was a penetrating injury as a result of penetration by a sharp or semi-sharp object such as a small bladed weapon including a skewer or the like in the earlier days.”

Jacob’s genital injuries were said to have been “sadistic” and were the subject of Drummond’s injury charge.

A pathologist dismissed a claim that the cut could have been caused by a plastic knife labeled “Mr. Potato Head” from Toy Story.

Drummond denied he had hurt Jacob and Lennon said she was “coerced and threatened” by her boyfriend into not getting help for her son.

The court heard Drummond received a juvenile warning in 2005 for holding a knife to his mother’s throat and was convicted in 2008 of assaulting another ex-girlfriend by pushing her against a wall.

The other ex-partner who was warned about the harassment also alleged that he previously grabbed her around the neck so much that she nearly passed out, jurors were told.

Earlier in the trial, Lennon sobbed as prosecutor Sally O’Neill showed her photographs she had taken of her son as his injuries progressively worsened, including severe bruising to his head, a cut lip and a patch of hair removed with hair removal cream.

She said she saw some injuries to Jacob’s genitals but did not see the worst injury, the cut.

Mrs. O’Neill said she must have seen all the injuries because she had been changing Jacob’s nappy regularly.

‘It’s a horrible, horrible injury you caused to your 16-month-old and you knew the injury was caused by the man you were having an affair with.

“How could this infection have happened in your apartment without you knowing about it?” asked Mrs. O’Neill.

Lennon said she was asleep.

‘But you told us you were a light sleeper. I’m sure you’ll agree that a mother is attuned to her baby’s cries, and hears them more than others.

I agreed it was a very painful injury.

“Jacob was screaming his head off when it hit him,” Ms O’Neill said.

Lennon said Drummond stopped and assaulted her as their relationship deteriorated, and would call her phone late at night and block her ex-boyfriends’ numbers.

Ms O’Neill earlier told jurors: ‘Jake Drummond initiated a campaign of intentional assault and harm on Jacob between July and the end of August.

The injuries he caused were obvious and noticeable.

Lucy Lennon tried to explain it away by making up accidental causes when it was clear to her that Jake Drummond had caused it.

His eyes were so swollen that they could not open them. Under his eyes were very dark bruises, he looked like a panda.

Injury to the scrotum was a penetrating injury as a result of penetration by a semi-sharp or blunt object such as a small-bladed weapon including a skewer or similar in earlier days.

The injury to Jacob’s penis and scrotum in particular by a blunt object was sadistic in its cruelty and must have caused Jacob great pain.

Louise Lennon was more concerned with maintaining her relationship with Jake Drummond than with protecting her young son from him although it became clear to her that Jake did not like Jacob and Jacob’s increasing and unexplained injuries.

The jury deliberated over two days to convict the couple of the charges.

Drummond denied but was found guilty of murder and willful wounding.

Lennon denied but was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child.

I recognized the cruelty of the child.

Mr Justice Sweeting has postponed sentencing until April 24 for reports to be prepared.

The Chief Justice thanked the jury, and said, “It was a tough case, I know, with a lot of painful evidence for you to hear.”