Five-week-old granddaughter died with catalogue of injuries
Mark Jones has still not revealed what he did to his baby granddaughter, Amelia Rose, to cause the injuries which ended her life at just 41 days old.
He has now been found guilty of her murder after a five-week trial at Newport Crown Court.
Jones, 45 and from Cwmbran, was babysitting his granddaughter alone at her home in the Pontnewydd area of the town, while his daughter Sarah went to the cinema on the evening of Saturday 17 November 2012.
The court heard how baby Amelia was feeding well, and breathing normally, when her mother left. By the time her grandfather phoned 999 and the emergency services arrived, she had severe head injuries.
The baby's life support machine was switched off two days later in hospital in Cardiff.
She was described as "a little doll" and a "darling little child" by neighbours in the days following her death.
Her father, Ian Skillern, released a tribute to "my beautiful daughter", who "will be sadly missed, and brought me joy in the short time she was here."
She had suffered a fractured skull, and a severe bleed to the brain. A post-mortem examination revealed a catalogue of injuries including fractures to her ribs and legs, which, the trial heard, were inflicted up to four weeks before she died. It's thought she had been subjected to violence on at least three occasions.
Evidence from medical experts suggested Amelia had experienced a blunt trauma, but also violent shaking. They agreed that the injuries to her ribs and legs had been inflicted by an adult, deliberately.
The court heard how Jones was frequently alone with Amelia and her siblings in the preceding weeks, although he denied hurting her.
The head injuries which caused Amelia's death were almost certainly inflicted on the night of Saturday 17 November 2012, when Mark Jones was babysitting.
The prosecution case, laid out by barrister Paul Lewis QC, was that he caused those injuries deliberately - and has since made up "a pack of lies" about what he did to Amelia to try to escape blame.
During his trial, Jones maintained that he had twice, on consecutive nights, mistakenly fallen over while carrying Amelia.
The court also heard:
Jones told the 999 call handler he had gone to make a cup of tea, and found Amelia had stopped breathing
He told a police officer at the house that evening that he had gone outside to have a cigarette and come back in to notice the baby wasn't breathing
He told a doctor checking him over at hospital that he mistakenly dropped Amelia while shaking her bottle, and she hit her head on the floor
He told the police, in July 2014, that a visitor had dropped the baby that Saturday night
Responding to the suggestion that Jones was a "skilled liar", defence barrister Roger Thomas QC said he was too "dull" for the kind of sophisticated plan attributed to him. He said: "If Mark Jones is an Oscar-winning actor, he certainly gets his lines mixed up."
Amelia's mother, Sarah Jones, gave evidence against her father during his trial, describing how he had repeatedly lied to her, making up his own health problems.
A possible motive for hurting Amelia, suggested by the prosecution during the trial, was Mark Jones' strong dislike for the baby's father, Ian Skillern.
Amelia's mother Sarah told the court that the two men actively avoided one another - and that Jones had commented that the baby looked like her dad.
Three days before she sustained her fatal injuries, Jones had said to his granddaughter: "Even though I don't like your Father, I don't hold grudges against a baby."
Whether that was his motivation or not, the jury decided that what Mark Jones did to Amelia was deliberate - and found him guilty of her murder.