Tragic Hayley's dad is jailed for a year

Kevin Flood - whose five-month-old daughter Hayley Davidson was injured in February and died in hospital three days later - was caught red handed in a Co-op store in Cupar.

He triggered an alarm in the building when he smashed his way through a skylight.

Cops attended and found him wandering round the shop drinking from a green glass bottle as he stacked a trolley with alcohol and chocolate.

Flood’s lawyer said the offence was committed to get drink to help him block out the pain of his loss because he had been “impotent” to stop the death as he was in jail on another charge when Hayley died.

Fiscal depute Vicki Bell told Dundee Sheriff Court: “He was observed drinking from the bottle throughout.

“He continued walking around the store as police watched.

“He approached officers still holding the bottle.

“An officer then took the bottle and detained him.

“The manager later attended and saw a trolley had been filled with numerous alcohol bottles and boxes of chocolate, the total value of which was £200 and fully recovered.

“A cash box at a till had been damaged as if he had tried to open it, as was a rear door where he had tried to leave.”

Flood (25), a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of theft by housebreaking committed on October 3 this year at the Co-op in Bonnygate, Cupar.

Defence solicitor Mike Short said: “There is a horrendous back story to this case.

“His daughter was killed in February whilst he was serving a sentence. He had been in a relationship with the mother for five months and she became pregnant, but he moved out when their difficulties became too much around the eight months mark of her pregnancy.

“His mother lived across the street and he simply moved back in with her.”

“He saw the child daily until he was sentenced in January.

“He wasn’t allowed to go and see the child or allowed to go to the funeral some months later, after police inquiries were complete.”

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said he took into account the “tragic background” and Flood’s early plea but there was “no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

Hayley Davidson was found seriously ill at an address in West High Street, Buckhaven on February 14 following reports of “concern” for her wellbeing.

She was rushed to the Sick Kids hospital in Edinburgh, but died three days later.

Police charged Gordon McKay (36), the boyfriend of Hayley’s mother Catherine Davidson, with murdering the tot days later.

Trial dates for McKay are still to be set.