A WORCESTER man who shook his six-months-old son and bit his finger in a bid to stop him crying has been jailed for nine months.

Tyrone Mills, aged 24, formerly of Cranham Drive, Warndon, was in tears as he left the dock at Worcester Crown Court yesterday.

Recorder Graham Cliff told him: "It's a privilege to have children but you lost your temper while in drink and acted in a very selfish way."

Mills, who was sent for sentence for assault causing actual bodily harm, was said by Guy Spollon, prosecuting, to have begun a relationship with Rachel Smith in March, last year. She already had a child and had Mills's son in December.

He treated both children well but later started to go out drinking, returning home drunk and in an argumentative mood.

On Friday, June 23, he telephoned home from a snooker club and asked Rachel to join him. She took the children with her but the baby kept crying.

Mills twice took the child outside in his pushchair in a bid to stop him crying. When they returned, the mother noticed the child's hand was bleeding and there was bruising to the head.

The next morning, Mills seemed shocked when he saw the injuries but did not admit his responsibility from the outset, said Mr Spollon.

His relationship broke up and when he was seen by police, he admitted biting the child's finger and shaking him out of anger.

He had been drinking and the child's crying had "done his head in".

Eugene Hickey, defending, said Mills was full of remorse and self-loathing. He accepted that he deserved to go to prison but it was an out-of-character offence.

He no longer had access to the child. His ex-partner's family felt so strongly about the offence that he intended to live outside the area to avoid them.