Nicola Brown
Nicola Brown must serve at least 14-and-a-half years for killing her son Police handout

A mother who killed her 19-day-old baby with a blow of "astonishing force" to his head with a hard object after subjecting him to a catalogue of abuse has been jailed for life.

Nicola Brown was told she must serve a minimum of 14-and-a-half years after fatally attacking her son, Jake Long.

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Jake died on 19 December 2014 after suffering a number of injuries, including bruises to his scalp, a fractured skull, a bilateral brain haemorrhage and bleeding to his eyes.

The 43-year-old mother screamed "I didn't do it. I didn't do it" as she was convicted of murder on 19 December. Brown had denied murder but was convicted by the jury.

Two post-mortem examinations found Jake had suffered further rib injuries, which became the basis for two further GBH charges Brown was also convicted of. The prosecution claimed the 17 fractures to his ribs were caused by the child being "probably shaken".

At the earlier trial the tot's father, Jason Brown, 44, was found not guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child at the couple's former home in Agincourt Road, Portsmouth. Nicola and Jason Brown have married since the death of their son. She was previously named Nicola Long.

Jake suffered 'rapid' traumatic injuries consistent with blows to the head on the day of his death but during the trial Winchester Crown Court heard that Nicola Brown phoned 999 and told paramedics Jake was "not very well" after "falling from his baby basket the day before".

During the three-week long trial, a recording of Brown's 999 emergency call was played to jurors.

She said, according to the Daily Mail: "My baby is not breathing. Yesterday he was knocked out of the baby basket - he's definitely not breathing. He's 19 days old and I didn't think there was anything wrong with him when he was knocked out of the baby basket."

At the earlier trial it was stated that doctors were not informed that Brown was pregnant prior to the child's birth and that she suffered from anxiety.