Killer, 15, 'fed up' with babysitting on birthday beat toddler to death

A teen who beat a toddler to death on his 15th birthday because he was "fed up" with having to babysit her has been released from prison.

Karl McCluney brutally attacked two-year-old Demi Leigh Mahon at a home in Eccles, Salford, in July 2008 - kicking, punching and biting her, and inflicting 68 injuries that caused catasrophic brain damage. She was kept on life support for two days before it was switched off with her parents at her bedside. McCluney was found guilty of murder at Liverpool Crown Court in July 2009 and jailed for 15 years.

Describing the attack as "savage," Judge Mr Justice Sweeney told him at his sentencing hearing: "You were extremely fed up with having to babysit because it was your birthday, nobody had planned anything for you and you did not think that was fair.

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"At the flat, Demi Leigh was crying and you became angry with her. Unsurprisingly, given your anger, she cried more. You got angrier and angrier until you lost your temper altogether. You then, over a period, according to you, of about 10 minutes, you hit her many times", the judge said.

"You were large and powerful, she was only a small child and stood no chance against your onslaught." Judge Sweeney then told McCluney he would not be released "until such time as it is decided you no longer pose a danger", adding: "When that might be is, at present, impossible to tell."

Demi Leigh's mother, Ann Marie McDonald, left the toddler in McCluney's care while she went to cash her child benefit, Manchester Evening News reports. The teenager took her to the park before murdering her at his home in Liverpool Road. The court heard how McCluney failed to explain his actions, only alluding to the fact that Demi's behaviour was annoying him.

Now aged 31, McCluney, whose sentence expired in April 2024, has been freed from jail following a two-day parole hearing which heard evidence from two psychologists, a psychiatrist, two social workers and McCluney himself. In its decision summary the Parole Board said McCluney, "held extreme shame and daily remorse for the devastating impact his actions continued to have on family members".

The hearing was told that at the time of the murder he had a "propensity to use violence" when he "experienced difficulties in managing extremes of emotion". It also heard that during the early part of his sentence his behaviour was "problematic" and that he had also spent time in a "secure hospital setting". Since 2017 however, he had "coped better" and there had been "no evidence of violence against others" for the past 11 years, the panel said.

McCluney had "engaged well" with psychologists and had "made progress in the areas of communication, problem solving, dealing with stress and learning about behavioural boundaries". Ruling McCluney could be released, the panel said it was "satisfied that imprisonment was no longer necessary for the protection of the public".

He will be subject to a number of licence conditions, including having to live at a 'designated address', a curfew and an exclusion zone to prevent contact with Demi Leigh's family.