A FORMER Championship player has been jailed after he left his ex’s two-year-old daughter needing round-the-clock care in a brutal attack.
Kiernan Hughes-Mason, 32, caused the toddler to suffer 17 different injuries to her face, chest, back and legs in a three-month period.
The ex-footballer, who played for Arsenal and Spurs’ youth team before a stint at Millwall, claimed she had fallen on her dollhouse.
But medics found the youngster had injuries that were likened to a “high-speed road traffic accident” or a “fall from a substantial height of several storeys”.
She was placed in a coma for 14 days and suffered life-changing brain injuries that require 24 hour care.
Hughes-Mason, who also played on loan for Cheltenham Town, has been jailed for 14 years after being convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and child cruelty.
In a moving victim impact statement, the girl’s mum told how her daughter was “no longer the little girl who would dance around the living room”.
Basildon Crown Court heard she cannot walk, sit or stand by herself and is in constant pain.
The youngster also struggles to speak, is now epileptic and has to be tube fed as she finds it difficult to eat or drink.
The horror unfolded while he was looking after his ex’s daughter in January 2020.
In the weeks leading up to the attack, Hughes-Mason had sent messages about how angry he was at having to care for the girl.
He wrote: “She’s actually getting on my nerves” and “I’m gonna hit her”.
After the youngster was taken to hospital, the brute tried portraying himself as a “doting stepfather” to police.
But officers found other text messages where he referred to the girl constantly as “your child” to her mother.
The prosecutor said: “He regularly belittled them, talked about them as if they were stupid and put them down.”
Hughes-Mason was arrested after police found the injuries were “deliberately” inflicted.
Hughes-Mason moved to Millwall in 2009 and spent two years playing for the Championship club.
He played for a string of English Football League and non-league clubs including Welling United and Leatherhead.
Speaking after today’s sentencing, the victim’s mother and her family said: “On the 31 January 2020 our whole world was blown apart. Our daughter, our niece, our granddaughter has been left with significant physical and mental disabilities that will impact her for the rest of her life.
“She cannot sit, stand or walk independently, requiring a hoist to move her.
“As a result of her injuries, she suffers with constant pain that needs to be managed daily.
“The brain damage caused has affected her communication, she cannot even tell us where her pain is or what upsets her.
“She is now epileptic, suffers with sleep disorders, struggles to eat and cannot drink – she is tube-fed for all her hydration and nutritional needs.
“Despite all this, we still see her personality shine through every day. In the midst of the pain she constantly faces, she brightens the darkest days.
“We will continue our best to ensure that she can live each day to the full as best she can. We love her more than anything else in this world.
“We are thankful that today some form of justice has been achieved, however this sentence does not compare to the life sentence our little girl now has.
“We mourn all the experiences we would have shared with her, that were taken from her by a violent coward, and we celebrate every day we still get to share with our beautiful young girl.”
Most recently, Hughes-Mason he managed Enfield Borough but was fired following his conviction.
Hashtag United, where the thug was a reserve team manager, said his crimes were “frankly sickening”.
A spokesperson said: “We can categorically say that the club had no knowledge whatsoever of these events until today.
“We are told that the crimes he has now been found guilty of occurred before he joined us.
“Some serious flaws have been exposed in procedures as we’d received confirmation from the relevant authorities that he was clear to coach as part of standard background checks.”
