A man who left a two-month-old baby with brain injuries after throwing him in the air and shaking him has been jailed for four years.

Jay Bell had previously admitted culpable and reckless conduct towards the baby to his severe injury, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life.

The child developed cerebral palsy following the incident and is now registered blind.

Bell, 23, of Dougall Place, Mayfield, Midlothian, threw the child repeatedly in the air but the baby struck his head on a wall, hit a Moses basket and fell to the floor. He then shook the baby a number of times.

At a previous court hearing, Bell also pled guilty to wilfully neglecting the baby and failing to seek medical attention in July 2013.

The joiner later told police the child was staring at him "completely lifeless" and he shook him "to come back round". He had also filmed the child having a seizure on his mobile phone.

Judge Paul Arthurson QC said the child cannot sit unaided and has difficulty using his limbs.

He said the consequences will continue to be "devastating for the child and his mother who cares for him".

The judge said it was months after the event before Bell had fully disclosed what happened to the baby.

He said: "I accept that while the consequences for the child were totally catastrophic these were not intended by you.

"But he added that the victim was extremely vulnerable and only a substantial prison sentence was appropriate."

He told Bell he would have faced a jail sentence of six years but for his guilty pleas.

Advocate depute Andrew Brown QC told the court the Crown accepted that while Bell's behaviour was plainly culpable and reckless, it lacked the "wicked intent" of an assault.

It was not until about a fortnight later that the boy was taken to hospital, where doctors found he had symptoms of "shaken baby syndrome".

A specialist child neurologist said there would have to be "some vigorous shaking" to cause the brain injury.

Defence solicitor advocate John Keenan said: "He will have to live with the fact he is the cause of this catastrophic injury.

"There was his initial folly of how he behaved with this child and the subsequent failure to seek medical attention.

"It was not in anyway a malicious act on his part. It was not designed to cause any injury or harm. It was foolish in the extreme."

The child's mother said after the case: "He never even showed any emotion."