Baby killer who murdered girlfriend's one-year-old son found dead in prison

A child killer serving life in prison for murdering a one-year-old boy has died behind bars.

Andrew Lloyd, from Swansea, Wales, murdered his girlfriend Rebecca Lewis's 13-month-old baby son Aaron Gilbert.

During his trial in 2005, it emerged he had subjected the youngster to a four-week catalogue of brutality.

The Prison Service has now confirmed he has died whilst serving his term in prison aged 37, reports WalesOnline.

A spokeswoman said: "HMP Full Sutton prisoner Andrew Lloyd died in custody on November 19. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed."

A Swansea Crown Court jury had found Lewis guilty of failing to protect her son from violent, drug-taking Lloyd at their home in the Townhill area of the city.

Lloyd viciously attacked the baby when he was alone with him on May 5, 2005.

He lost his temper and shook Aaron violently, causing his head to collide with a wall.

Lloyd killed 13-month Aaron Gilbert after subjecting him to a sustained, four-week catalogue of brutality.

Mum Lewis had left Aaron with Lloyd while she went shopping — even though she knew he had assaulted him during weeks of abuse.

After Aaron died in hospital the following day, a pathologist found a severe brain injury and almost 50 external injuries.

Lloyd, then 23, was sentenced in December 2006 at Swansea Crown Court with Aaron’s mother, then 21-year-old Lewis.

He was given a minimum of 24 years in prison, meaning he would have been 47 if he served his full term.

Lewis was jailed for seven years for familial homicide and attempting to pervert the course of justice in what was a legal landmark at the time. She was one of the first people in Wales and England to face the charge of familial homicide.

At the time, Swansea Crown Court heard that the relationship between Lewis and Lloyd began at the end of March 2005

After moving in with Lewis, Lloyd developed a hatred of baby Aaron.

The jury heard how he had yelled at him, picked him up by his ears, thrown bottles at him, swung him by his ankles “like someone swinging a cat by its tail”, put a blanket over him as if to smother him, and blown cannabis smoke in his face.

There was also evidence that five days before Aaron died, Lloyd bit him hard on the cheek.

Aaron became so disfigured by being systematically and violently assaulted that a neighbour likened his appearance to that of the Elephant Man.

Sentencing Lloyd, the judge, Mr Justice Langstaff said at the time: “You murdered Aaron after subjecting him to a sustained catalogue of brutality during the last four weeks of his life.

“I regard your conduct during those four weeks as being effectively inseparable from what you did on the day when you inflicted the fatal injury.”

In 2007, Lloyd’s case reached London's Appeal Court as he challenged his minimum jail tariff of 24 years.

His lawyers argued that the sentence took insufficient account of his youth and turbulent personal background.

But Lord Justice Gage said doctors had noted 50 separate injuries on Aaron’s body after his death in May 2005.

The injuries covered his small body “from head to foot”.

He said Lloyd had inflicted “significant and extreme abuse” and, but for his youth and background of turmoil, a 30-year tariff might have been imposed.

“This was a dreadful case,” he concluded at the time, rejecting Lloyd’s appeal.

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