Mum opens phone app to see man trying to murder her baby in its cot

A cowardly thug who tried to kill a crying toddler in a sickening attack was caught after the tot's horrified mother opened a camera app on her phone.

Lewis Prince, 29, pushed, strangled and smothered the young child he was supposed to be taking care of. He denied attempted murder but a jury saw through his lies and found him guilty.

The harrowing incident was only uncovered when the toddler's mother checked a camera app on her phone and witnessed the horrifying attack as it unfolded.

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Prince, of Browning Road, Swinton, Salford, fled the scene but was arrested on the M61 motorway. He has now been handed a thirty-year jail sentence for the evil crime, Lancs Live reports.

Dressed in jeans and a jumper, he pleaded guilty to two new charges of having no insurance or licence when he drove away from the child's home in December.

That morning, he had been asked to watch the child at its Blackpool home but soon his anger boiled over into a horrific attack. As the child cried, Prince launched his assault at which point the child's mum happened to log onto an app on her phone which allowed her to see video of their cot, as she would normally do.

But this time she saw scenes so horrific she had to run back home as the child screamed helplessly. During a trial at Preston Crown Court, four harrowing, six-second recordings of the attack which saw Prince punching and slapping the baby were played to court.

In the footage, he is seen grabbing the baby's neck, pinning them down and repeatedly throwing them down. At one stage, he stood on the child to pin them to the ground. In the struggle, Prince, himself a dad-of-two, left the room to