Ex-footballer Kiernan Hughes-Mason left toddler with injuries ‘similar to high-speed road crash’

An ex-Millwall footballer has been convicted of violently assaulting a two-year-old girl, leaving her with life-changing brain injuries that require 24-hour care.

Kiernan Hughes-Mason, of Ramuz Drive, Westcliff-on-Sea, inflicted injuries which one doctor likened to “a high-speed road traffic accident”, or a “fall from a great height”, on a two-year-old girl during an attack in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, in January 2020.

The 32-year-old, who played for EFL sides Millwall and Grimsby Town, as well as a string of non-league clubs including Welling United, was found guilty of child cruelty and grievous bodily harm following a three-week trial at Basildon Crown Court which concluded on Wednesday.

The victim’s family said: “We have had to go through what no family should ever have to experience, and our girl is going to bear the consequences of what he has done to her for the rest of her life”.

On January 31, 2020, Hughes-Mason called paramedics while he was supposed to be looking after his ex-partner’s daughter.

He claimed he heard a loud bang from her bedroom while he was downstairs and said he believed she had fallen on a dollhouse.

The East of England Ambulance Service arrived within nine minutes of the call and took the child to Southend General Hospital.

She was placed in an induced coma, due to the severity of her injuries, and taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital for further treatment.

Doctors identified 17 different injuries to her legs, back, face and chest, believed to have occurred between October 2019 and the assault in January 2020.

She remained in a coma for 14 days and suffered life-changing brain injuries which means she needs 24-hour care.

The prosecution barrister said: “The experts agree that the pattern of injuries found is consistent with the child having been vigorously shaken, with her head likely being hit against a hard surface.

“The only explanation was that they were inflicted by this defendant deliberately.”

​Hughes-Mason was arrested on February 14, 2020, in connection with the incident.

The three year-long investigation into the attack required the collection statements and reports from eight medical practitioners and experts, along with the seizure of Hughes-Mason’s phone.

In the days leading up to the incident, Hughes-Mason sent multiple messages stating how angry caring for his partner’s daughter made him, saying “she’s actually getting on my nerves”, and “I’m gonna hit her”.

The prosecution barrister said: “Hughes-Mason was keen from the outset to portray himself to the police as the doting stepfather who treated the children as his own.

“Yet in his text messages written at the time, he regularly belittled them and talked about them as if they were stupid.”

Hughes-Mason will be sentenced on September 10, at Basildon Crown Court.

Pictured top: Hughes-Mason played for Welling United before entering Millwall’s first-team (Picture: Nigel French/EMPICS Sport/ PA Media)