Glasgow Dad Convicted of Killing Daughter and Attempted Murder of Young Boy
A callous dad who killed his baby daughter four years ago before attempting to murder another infant boy was behind bars today.
Ian Ruddock,34, had stood trial accused of murdering five-week-old Olivia at his family's home in Clarkston, Glasgow, in 2011.
But a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh found him guilty on a majority verdict of a reduced charge of culpable homicide against his daughter. He was also convicted of the murder bid on the little boy in 2013.
On various occasions between January and March in2011, he repeatedly shook his defenceless daughter, causing her to suffer extensive rib and head injuries.
He managed to evade justice and he attacked another child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at an address in Glasgow two years ago.
He caused the boy to suffer a fractured skull and fractured ribs during an attack which prosecutors treated as attempted murder.
Ruddock, of Springhill Gardens, Shawlands, Glasgow, was finally caught after police, tipped off by medics, launched an investigation shortly after the second infant's injuries were discovered.
They managed to bring together enough evidence which allowed prosecutors to bring the keen hockey player to court.
Ruddock denied any wrong doing and claimed to be a doting dad who loved to be around children.
But following a seven week long trial, a jury concluded that Ruddock was a cowardly killer.
Following conviction, judge Lord Bannatyne deferred sentence so the court could obtain reports about his background.
The judge remanded Ruddock, who had been on bail, in custody.
Lord Bannatyne told jurors: "A trial of the type which you have sat through must have been harrowing."
The judge said: "There are few circumstances more tragic than the death of a child."
He added that the jury had heard a case of "the utmost complexity".
During proceedings, Ruddock maintained that he was innocent of any wrong doing. He was joined in court every day by members of his family who sat in the public benches of the High Court in Edinburgh's court three.
During proceedings, the court heard evidence from Mr Ruddock's 35-year-old sister Susan Drennan. Mrs Drennan, of Cambuslang, Glasgow, told the court that her brother was "delighted" when Olivia was born.
She also told prosecution lawyer Ashley Edwards about how her brother and his wife felt following the death of Olivia.
She added: "They were grieving for a very long time."
His own wife Wendy,37, also told the court that she didn't believe her husband had done anything wrong. She said she didn't think her partner Ian,34, was capable of hurting Olivia.
The financial services worker told defence advocate Donald Findlay QC on Friday that her hubby wasn't a killer.
Speaking about the charges facing her hubby, Mrs Ruddock said: "I have never believed the allegations." Mrs Ruddock told the court that her husband was at his "happiest" when surrounded by children.
She added: "I don't believe he would hurt children - never, no way."
She also told Mr Findlay that she didn't believe police when they informed her that they suspected that Olivia had fallen victim to a crime.
She also told the court that following the death of Olivia in March 2011 that her husband suffered from grief.
She said that she believed he dealt with the grief of losing Olivia in a different way from how she attempted to deal with her pain.
Mrs Ruddock told the court that Ian could be moody and that their relationship became strained.
The court heard that he occasionally spent time away from her at his parents house.
Mrs Ruddock told advocate depute Ashley Edwards that her partner could be moody.
She added: "There were times he would barely say two words to me."
Mrs Ruddock said that her partner considered attending counselling to help him deal with the loss of Olivia.
She also told the court that she believed the period of time spent waiting for the trial to commence had caused her marriage to come to an end.
When Ms Edwards asked why she thought that, Mrs Ruddock replied: "Just the length of time this is all taking.
"I didn't want the marriage to end. I was hoping this could get sorted out. But we are now two and a half years down the line and things are different."
She also told the court about her daughter's final moments.
Mrs Ruddock told the court that Ian had got up from bed in the early hours of March 6 to feed their daughter.
But during the feed, Olivia became unwell, prompting him to shout for her.
Saying he sounded panicked, Mrs Ruddock told Ms Edwards: "I knew something wasn't right.
"He shouted on me to phone an ambulance which I did immediately.
"The person on the other end of the phone was trying to talk us through CPR. But it was just panic stations."
Mrs Ruddock, who also works in financial services, said her husband performed CPR on Olivia "as best he could."
She told the court: "You're not really thinking straight." Mrs Ruddock also said that Ian went with Olivia in the ambulance.
She added: "I was in a terrible state."
Mrs Ruddock also told the court that at Yorkhill, medics conducted tests in a bid to find out what had made Olivia unwell.
She added: "I just remember Olivia being hooked up to a lot of machines."
Mrs Ruddock also told the court that medics concluded that they couldn't save Olivia's life.
She added: "The damage was too extensive and she couldn't survive."
The court heard that following Olivia's death, police interviewed both her and her husband. Her daughter's body wasn't released to her family for six months.
Mrs Ruddock also told the court that she received counselling from the Scottish Cot Death Trust following the death of Olivia.
She said that her husband helped her in the weeks following Olivia's passing.
Mrs Ruddock added: "He was great. He was the one who sorted everything out. He was the one who got counselling for me.
"He was the one who lifted the phone as I couldn't even do that."
Two years after the incident involving Olivia, Ruddock targeted another child at an address in Glasgow. The court heard how he seized the child and inflicted blunt force trauma to his head and body.
The little boy was rushed to hospital and medics found he had several injuries to his head and body.
The youngster has since recovered from his ordeal. But Ruddock maintained he was innocent of any wrong doing.
He admitted to a jury that he shook Olivia when she had fallen ill at the family home.
He said he couldn't remember a lot about the hours leading up to the infant's death at a hospital in the city. But he denied deliberately harming Olivia and he said that he tried to awaken her when she became unresponsive.
Mr Ruddock told the court: "I was trying to get her to wake up. I can just remember holding her and trying to get her to wake up."
Mr Ruddock told the court that what happened on the night Olivia fell unwell was "mainly a blur."
The court heard that Olivia was admitted to Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary shortly after Mr Ruddock discovered the little girl's condition.
The infant later died at Glasgow's Yorkhill Hospital on March 6 2011.
He said: "I don't remember very much at all. I remember very little. I do not remember much for the next few weeks."
However, he said he could remember some parts of the evening.
Mr Ruddock told the court that he shouted for his wife Wendy,37, when he discovered his daughter was unwell.
He said: "I thought she was dead."
Mr Ruddock told the court that he held Olivia and tried to awake her.
When Ms Edwards asked him how he felt at discovering his daughter was unresponsive, Mr Ruddock said: "Sheer terror... sheer panic. I had no idea what was happening."
Mr Ruddock told the court that he shook his little girl in a bid to awaken her.
When Ms Edwards asked Mr Ruddock about whether he believed he had harmed his daughter, he replied: "I don't believe for a minute that I've caused her death. It's not even remotely possible."
The court heard that the police launched an investigation into Ruddock shortly after medical staff treated his second victim.
Police looked back through Ruddock's past and discovered shocking medical evidence about what happened to Olivia when she was being treated.
Consultant radiologist Greg Irwin,48, worked at Yorkhill Hospital. During proceedings, he told the court that there was "incontrovertible" evidence that Olivia had sustained three fractured ribs prior to her death.
He also said that she had another eight "probable" fractured ribs.
The court heard how when Olivia died, he and a colleague who studied scans of the little girl's rib cage didn't find these injuries. Doctors at that time concluded that Olivia died from bronchial pneumonia. But Dr Irwin's view changed when he subsequently reviewed the images.
Dr Irwin told the court that his initial view was wrong. He concluded that she had fractured ribs and that this was indicative of foul play.
The court heard that some medics still don't share Dr Irwin's views about Olivia's injuries.
When Ruddock's defence advocate Donald Findlay QC asked Dr Irwin why he didn't initially think Olivia had fractured ribs, the medic replied: "I do not know the answer to that question."
He told Mr Findlay that he was "horrified" at discovering Olivia's alleged injuries for the second time.
But Mr Irwin also said that it was a "regular occurrence" for medical staff to misdiagnose fractures.
He added: "It regularly happens."
Dr Irwin said he was "horrified" and "disappointed" upon discovering that he had wrongly diagnosed Olivia's alleged injuries.
And he told the court that there were regular meetings among medics to discuss how mistakes were made in diagnosing patients.
Dr Irwin also told the court that there meetings and review procedures for whenever mistakes were made in diagnosing patients' injuries.
The medic also agreed with Mr Findlay that some of his colleagues didn't share his view that Olivia had fractured ribs.
Mr Findlay asked: "You couldn't get four radiologists to agree with you?"
Dr Irwin replied: "yes."
But when Mr Findlay asked why the jury should believe his evidence when he initially thought that Olivia wasn't injured, Mr Irwin replied that he was sure that the little girl had fractured ribs.
In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Findlay said the uncertainty surrounding the medical evidence meant that there was reasonable doubt about whether Ruddock had done anything wrong.
The advocate said that if the jurors were to convict Mr Ruddock on the evidence that they had heard, they'd be reaching the wrong verdict.
Pointing to his client, who was sitting in the dock, the QC added:"You will leave this building having brought about a catastrophic miscarriage of justice and you will have ruined that young man's life."
However, a jury believed there was enough evidence to convict Mr Ruddock.
Sentence was deferred on Ruddock until later this month at the High Court in Glasgow.