Man appears in court charged with baby murder

A man has appeared in court in Northern Ireland charged with murdering an 11-month-old baby boy.

Ali Sharyar, 31, was looking after Hunter McGleenon while his mother was with her terminally ill grandmother.

A pathologist’s report said the boy’s fatal head injury was not accidental.

A prosecutor told Newry Magistrates’ Court Ali was in sole care of the child at a property in Keady in Co Armagh when the death happened on Tuesday.

The businessman, from Westenra Terrace in Monaghan in the Irish Republic, told police the baby fell from a low sofa onto a concrete floor.

He attended a casino during the night before the infant’s death, leaving him in the car, CCTV footage showed, police told the court.

Charges involving illegal entry to the UK and possessing an indecent photograph of a child were dropped.

Ali was dressed in a grey tracksuit as he stood in the dock.

District judge Eamonn King refused him bail and remanded him in custody to reappear before the same court via video link on December 18.