A twisted dad posted a fundraising page for his baby son’s funeral - just weeks after he murdered him in a fit of rage.
Oliver Mailey had been arrested by police after he shook seven-week-old Abel-Jax to death. But when the 26-year-old dad was freed under investigation he portrayed himself as the heartbroken parent.
He posted a series of pictures and messages about his victim, calling his son 'Spud' and saying how much he loved and missed him.
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Mailey, from Burnley, even got his baby’s name tattooed onto his neck alongside a pair of angel wings and a baby handprint.
One post shared on Mailey’s Facebook showed him cuddling Abel-Jax in his arms and saying: "Words couldn't explain how much I need you and miss you spud daddy loves you and will never stop doing."
When then infant's unsuspecting mother Mollie Gorton organised a Go Fund Me appeal to raise cash for Abel-Jax's funeral, Mailey posted: "Please can everyone help me to lay my little spud to rest a little donations we are struggling to lay him to rest and give him the best send off he needs."
Mailey was later charged with murder and found guilty at Preston Crown Court, jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years behind bars. The court heard how, before his eventual death, Mailey shook Abel-Jax so hard he caused him seven rib fractures and a bleed on the brain.
The baby wasn’t taken to the hospital at the time and was heard crying whenever his parents tried to pick him up and cuddle him. Abel-Jax died ten days later on November 28, 2021 when Mollie had gone to work but within 45 minutes of her leaving, Mailey rang her saying something was wrong with their son.
In a video call between the pair, Mollie could see Abel-Jax on Mailey's knee, his body was limp and lifeless.
Mailey told Mollie he had been changing him and he felt limp, so he went to feed him but then his arms went floppy, and he felt 'weird'.
Abel-Jax was rushed to Royal Blackburn Hospital before being transferred to Manchester Children's Hospital for further treatment where he died two days later. Doctors concluded he died of a brain injury having been shaken with the 'force of a car crash'.
Mailey was arrested on the evening of November 28 before being charged with the murder the following July. He initially denied wrongdoing and pointed suspicion towards Mollie.
At his trial, he eventually confessed to shaking his son in a 'moment of madness' as Abel-Jax wouldn't stop crying.
Mollie, 26, was initially accused of murdering Abel-Jax but was cleared of any wrongdoing. In a statement she said: "I had to plan my baby's funeral and I didn't know where to start or how to do it.
"My home haunts me as it is filled with so many memories. I live in my bedroom upstairs because I don't like to be downstairs. I don't like being alone because when I am on my own I think about it. I do not trust people and don't think I will trust a man anymore.
“I feel like I am stuck and not getting to my destination. I'm still numb and can't process it. It would help if I could talk to someone but I was told not to. All I am focusing on now is trying to rebuild my life.”
Sentencing Mailey, the judge Mr Justice Barry Cotter told the killer dad: "You knew you had injured a seven-and-a-half-week-old baby badly, he was limp, not breathing properly, if at all, and unresponsive, yet you did not take the immediate and obvious step until two people had told you do so.
"You had already decided to lie, you lied to the paramedics and continued to lie at the hospital. Mollie accused you of hurting Abel but you denied that you harmed him and appeared to suggest her son had harmed him.
"Eventually the medical evidence showed an overall pattern of injuries to the brain, eyes and nervous system which was consistent with deliberate and forceful shaking on the morning of 28 November 2021.
"The injuries caused by shaking, the oxygen starvation, bleeding and swelling, led to Abel-Jax's collapse and subsequent death. The triad of brain swelling, brain bleeding and eye injuries were consistent with non-accidental head-injury.
"Abel was not a particularly difficult child - he had a good regime and was a good sleeper, there's nothing about his behaviour that could come close to driving you to what has been described as your wit's end.
"The reason he was crying so much in the days before his death was because you had broken his ribs. You had been woken in the night a couple of times, but this is part and parcel of having a baby. The shaking on both occasions was clearly very violent and you subsequently lied to save your own skin."
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