Heartbreaking footage of a toddler happily playing was played in court as his father was found guilty of his murder.
Daniel Hardcastle, 31, claimed his two-year-old toddler Damion Russell died after he hit his head on a coffee table, but a pathologist found the youngster's injuries to be inconsistent with that claim.
It was later determined that Hardcastle had launched a horrific attack on his son, leaving him with an adult human bite mark on his thigh, fractured ribs and bruising on his body.
The pathalogist said Damion's injuries were caused by either forcefully shaking him and then banging his head against a solid object, such as a coffee table. They also suggested he could have caused Damion's head to come into contact with an object with such force, that it would have injured his neck and eyes.
A heartbreaking video released after Hardcastle was found guilty of murder shows a collection of adorable pictures of Damion and footage of him walking in an outdoor play area.
Damion was taken to hospital following the assault in August last year but his injuries were unsurvivable and he sadly died two days later. The jury were told how Hardcastle had began drinking more in the weeks before the attack, and that he had isolated himself from his support network.
Preston Crown Court also heard Hardcastle, who had sole care of his son, spent all night chatting to a woman he had met online just two nights before the murder. Hardcastle, of Blackpool, Lancashire. was found guilty of murder following a four-week trial, where the jury deliberated for just two hours before reaching a verdict.
Det Supt Al Davies said: "First and foremost my thoughts today are with Damion's loved ones. Like any young child Damion had the right to be loved and cherished by the man who should have done everything he could to protect him.
"Instead, he found himself subjected to a horrifically violent and sustained assault which caused the injuries which sadly led to his death. Only Daniel Hardcastle can say exactly what happened on that fateful day or why he did what he did, but this was no childhood accident that ended in tragedy.
"The nature and extent of the fatal injuries, deliberately inflicted by Hardcastle were done with intent to cause at least really serious harm and were the direct cause of Damion's tragic death."