A former professional footballer has been convicted of violently assaulting a two-year-old girl, leaving her with “life-changing” injuries that require 24-hour care.

Kiernan Hughes-Mason, 32, was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and child cruelty after his ex-partner’s daughter was found with serious injuries at an address in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex in January 2020.

During the trial, the prosecution barrister said one doctor compared the child’s injuries to a “high-speed road traffic accident” or a “fall from a substantial height of several storeys”.

Hughes-Mason claimed he heard a loud bang from the girl’s bedroom and believed she had fallen on a dollhouse, leaving her conscious but unresponsive while in his care on 31 January 2020.

The girl was taken to Southend Hospital, but her injuries were so severe she was placed in an induced coma and taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital for further treatment.

Medics found 17 different injuries to her face, chest, back and legs, which are believed to have been sustained between October 2019 and January 2020.

The toddler remained in a coma for 14 days and suffered life-changing brain injuries.

Hughes-Mason, who was 28 at the time of the attack, was arrested on 14 February 2020.

Investigators found that, in the days leading up to the assault, he sent text messages which said how angry caring for his then partner’s daughter made him, saying: “She’s actually getting on my nerves” and “I’m gonna hit her”.

After a three-week trial, Hughes-Mason was found guilty of both charges following five hours of deliberation by the jury.

The family of the victim said after the conviction: “We finally have a verdict and that man is now held accountable for what he did to our little girl.

“We have had to go through what no family should ever have to experience, and our girl is going to bear the consequences of what he has done to her for the rest of her life.”

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During the trial, the prosecution said Hughes-Mason was “keen from the outset to portray himself to the police as the doting stepfather who treated the children as his own, saying how much he loved them.

“Yet in his text messages written at the time, he constantly referred to them as ‘your children,’ or ‘your child’ to the child’s mother. He regularly belittled them, talked about them as if they were stupid and put them down.

“In respect of the head and brain injury that the child suffered… the experts all agree that the pattern of injuries found is consistent with the child having been vigorously shaken… with her head likely being hit against a hard surface.

“The only explanation for the pattern of injuries suffered by the child was that they were inflicted by this defendant and inflicted deliberately.”

Hughes-Mason started out his career at Championship side Millwall, before playing for several English Football League and non-league clubs including Welling United, Leatherhead and more recently managing Enfield Borough.

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Enfield Borough said they had fired Mason-Hughes as manager “in light of recent revelations regarding serious legal matters from [his] past, which were not disclosed during the hiring process”.

Meanwhile, Hashtag United, where Hughes-Mason was a reserve team manager and ex-player, said his conviction was “deeply shocking” and the crimes were “frankly sickening”.

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“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.”

The club also expressed its sympathy with the victim and her family, saying: “We can’t possibly imagine what they have been going through since these horrific events took place.”

Hughes-Mason will be sentenced on 10 September at Basildon Crown Court.

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