A man has been jailed after admitting to killing his baby son.
Police were called to Squires Wood in Fulwood at around 1.30am on 14 June 2022 to a report that six-week-old baby Huxley Sayle had been taken to Royal Preston Hospital unresponsive and with a head injury. He was later transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Huxley’s injuries were too severe to be compatible with life and treatment was withdrawn on 14 July 2022.
On 17 June 2022, Huxley’s father Peter Sayle was arrested at his home in Fulwood on suspicion of Section 18 Wounding.
During the police interview, Sayle denied any wrongdoing, stating that injuries caused would have been a result of him performing CPR on Huxley.
On 22 June 2022 and having reviewed the results of a CT scan, medical experts at the children’s hospital concluded that Huxley had suffered a number of skull and brain injuries. The author of the report indicated that those injuries would have resulted in immediate symptoms and were consistent with Huxley having been violently shaken.
On 22 July 2022 – and with more evidence available indicting that Huxley had come to deliberate harm – Sayle was re-arrested on suspicion of murder.
Again, he denied any wrongdoing.
A Home Office postmortem examined later established that baby Huxley’s cause of death was traumatic head injury, and that no natural disease had caused his traumatic collapse.
The pathologist also concluded that the two rib fractures Huxley had suffered were inconsistent with having been caused by CPR, and were more likely caused while he was forcefully gripped or squeezed around the chest during an episode of vigorous shaking.
Sayle was interviewed for the final time on 27 March 2025 and denied forcibly shaking Huxley and said he had done nothing to cause his son’s collapse.
An examination of Sayle’s phone, found a number of concerning web searched that had been made shortly after Huxley’s birth. These included: “tips to deal with frustration and anger”, “baby crying makes me angry dad”, and “I’m getting so angry when baby won’t sleep”.
On the fifth day of trial at Preston Crown Court, Sayle, 32, now of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to Huxley’s manslaughter. That plea was acceptable to the prosecution.
He was sentenced on Thursday (12 February) and jailed for nine years and 11 months.
DCI Andy Fallows, of Lancashire Constabulary’s Force Major Investigation Team, said: “Peter Sayle’s violent actions led to the death of baby Huxley – a completely defenceless child who was relying on his dad to care for and protect him.
“Whilst we will never truly know what caused Sayle to do what he did, we do know what he chose to do after. Rather than admit to what he had done and show remorse for his actions, Peter Sayle sought to spin a web of lies and blame anyone but himself for baby Huxley’s death.
“This was an extremely challenging and complex investigation, and I want to place on record my thanks to the investigation team for their unwavering focus in striving to get justice for Huxley.”
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