A CAIRNS jury took just 20 minutes yesterday to find a teenager guilty of the murder of a baby girl after they were reminded how he showed his victim no mercy.

Prosecutor Michael Connolly urged the jury not to accept any "soft compromise" for the "relentless" attack on the 14-month-old girl that led to her death from severe abdominal trauma in a Westcourt unit on the night of January 15 last year.

The attack by the boyfriend of the infant’s mother occurred after the woman left the unit for 20 minutes.

"Here, you’ve got an attack, 18 individual blows, and it went on relentlessly," Mr Connolly said in summing up to the jury.

"He used his elbow; he wanted to hurt her more.

"He used his knee; he wanted to hurt her more.

"She’s in distress, she’s having difficulty breathing and he picks her up and swings her about.

"He’s shown no compassion, no sympathy."

Cairns Supreme Court Justice Stanley Jones will sentence the Palm Island man, 19, today.

The guilty verdict about 4.30pm brought the two-day trial to a swift end. It had been set down for the
entire week.

The man had admitted causing the baby’s death but denied intending to murder her.

In his closing submission yesterday, defence barrister Kevin McCreanor told the jury they "would not be human" if they did not find the facts "shocking and appalling".

But Mr McCreanor said the evil part about murder was the intent to kill.

"You have to be satisfied when he inflicted those injuries he meant for her to die," he said.

Mr Connolly said something "much more malevolent" happened than just a man letting his anger and resentment out on a little girl.

"Everyone knows how vulnerable children are to injury," he said.

"This is not a case of a baby screaming and crying and driving me nuts.

"This is a child put down on the bed going to sleep in the most innocent situation you can possibly imagine."

After the baby’s death last year, respected veteran detective John Harris described the case as one of the most horrific he had encountered in 38 years.

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