Baby Hollie Ashurst murder trial: Wigan dad found guilty of manslaughter of his daughter

There was stunned silence at Manchester Crown Court as the jury returned its verdicts in the case of 33-year-old Daniel Ashurst.

The seven men and five women had spent three hours deliberating after hearing evidence for two-and-a-half weeks about what happened to his daughter Hollie.

Mr Justice Dove will hand down a sentence on Wednesday.

Hollie was just 14 months old when Ashurst, of Fleming Court, Shevington, ran into Standish Medical Centre on February 28, carrying her lifeless body in his arms.

Staff tried to revive her and she was rushed to Wigan Infirmary’s A&E department for treatment.

But the tot could not be saved and her mother Leanne Thompson made the heartbreaking decision to remove life support.

Hollie died at 4.36pm on March 1 at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had multiple injuries, including bleeding on the brain and in the eyes, a fractured ankle, bruises on her face, head and chest, and two possible bite marks.

There was also evidence of at least one older bleed on her brain.

Prosecutor Guy Gozem QC argued Ashurst had lost his temper and deliberately hurt his daughter.

A pathologist said Hollie was the “subject of non-accidental injury involving excessive acceleration and deceleration of her head in relation to the rest of her body, with multiple impacts to her head and face.”

But Ashurst denied killing his daughter, saying she had been injured in a number of incidents on the same day.

He said she fell off a bed, down two steps and then fell from his arms as he rushed downstairs to take her to hospital.

He claimed she then fell out of a car seat when he braked “heavily” at traffic lights and he pulled her between the seats and onto his lap as he drove.