A THUG who broke a three-week-old baby's arm after the infant accidentally scratched him has escaped a jail sentence.

A THUG who broke a three-week-old baby's arm after the infant accidentally scratched him has escaped a jail sentence.

In January, after a trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court, Stuart Mitchell, 24, was found guilty of causing the baby severe injury in the brutal assault.

Reviewing his sentence while the attacker serves an 18-month probationary period, Sheriff Alfred Vannet has been told that Mitchell, a former chef at Lang's Hotel in Glasgow, has since found new employment and had carried out 70 hours of an 180-hour community service order.

Sheriff Vannet said: "There is no doubt in my mind you knew what you had done at the time and that will live with you for the rest of your life.

"Given the circumstances and your lack of record I take the view that custody is not appropriate."

The trial had heard that Mitchell seized hold of the baby's left arm and twisted it, causing what was described by a medic as "a spiral displaced fracture".

The 22-day-old weighed just under 10lbs at the time of the horrific attack and the trial heard that the child was left to suffer for three hours before its mother was alerted and a further two hours before an ambulance arrived.

Mitchell admitted breaking the child's arm but claimed it was accidental.

The attack happened at a house in Cumbernauld on December 16, 2006.

During the trial the baby's mother, told the jury how Mitchell broke down in tears at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill, Glasgow, after X-rays revealed the fracture.

The court heard Mitchell, of Ruchazie Road, Cranhill in Glasgow's East End, "confessed" to police five weeks after the horror incident.

It took four months before authorities returned the mother and child, who was then still on the Child Protection Register.