26/10/2006

Life for man found guilty of toddler's murder

A man convicted of murdering his ex partner's three-year-old daughter nearly 25 years ago has been jailed for life.

Nicholas Byard, 46, was found guilty at Nottingham Crown Court of the murder of Lisa Jayne Pegg in Leicestershire in February 1982.

Byard had denied the murder, claiming that the toddler had died after falling down stairs at the couple's home.

A High Court Judge sentencing him to a minimum of 13-and-a-half years said Byard had 'grossly betrayed' the position of trust that he was in.

The case had been reopened in 2002 after Lisa's father, Alan Pegg, asked police to reinvestigate.

Byard was living with the mother of the child at the time the Lisa sustained her injuries. Surgery revealed that Lisa's brain was bruised and swollen that her bowel had been torn. She died on February 15, 1982.

After the verdict, the court heard that Byrad had a number of previous convictions for assault. He had also been given a caution for an assault on Lisa in September 1981 after Mr Pegg complained to police.

Lisa's mother, Julie Pegg said in a statement: "When the police told us they were reinvestigating Lisa's death and that new evidence had come to light that suggested her death may not have been the accident we always believed it to be, my family and I were once again plunged into a nightmare."

Ms Pegg said that the trial of her former partner, the father of her two children, had caused her 'huge trauma'.

(DS)

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