A dad has been found guilty of murdering his son after he left him in a hot car for seven hours.

Justin Ross Harris was accused of killing his 22-month-old son Cooper so he could start a new life without his wife and child.

Phone and internet records show Harris was sending explicit messages for much of the day while his son was dying inside his sweltering locked SUV.

The defence claimed the death was accidental saying Harris was a flawed man who simply forgot his son was in the car.

But a jury found Harris guilty of murder - the most serious of eight charges he faced including child cruelty and sex crimes related to explicit texts he sent to a teenage girl.

The 35-year-old from Atlanta in the US now faces life imprisonment.