‘Miss you spud, daddy loves you’: The sickening tributes a father posted after murdering his eight-week-old son by shaking him to death – including a new neck tattoo featuring the tot’s name

• Oliver Mailey, 26, of Burnley, shook Abel-Jax to death on November 27, 2021
• Mailey was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years after he was found guilty

A cannabis-addicted father posted a string of sickening tributes after murdering his eight-week-old son – including a new neck tattoo featuring the tot’s name.

Oliver Mailey, 26, of Burnley, Lancashire, was arrested by police after he shook Abel-Jax to death on November 27, 2021, but was freed under investigation.

The posts emerged after Mailey was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years after he was found guilty of murder at Preston Crown Court.

He tried to portray himself as a devastated father by posting a series of pictures and messages calling his victim ‘Spud’ and saying how much he loved and missed him.

Oliver Mailey (pictured), 26, of Burnley, Lancashire, was arrested by police after he shook Abel-Jax to death on November 27, 2021 , but was freed under investigation

The posts emerged after Mailey was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years after he was found guilty of murder at Preston Crown Court

He tried to portray himself as a devastated father by posting a series of pictures and messages calling his victim ‘Spud’ and saying how much he loved and missed him

One post on Facebook showed Mailey cuddling Abel-Jax in his arms saying: ‘Words couldn’t explain how much I need you and miss you spud daddy loves you and will never stop doing.’

Another showed him sporting a tattoo on his neck, which he had done after the murder, paying tribute to Abel-Jax.

It featured the baby’s name inked alongside a pair of angel wings and a baby handprint.

When the infant’s unsuspecting mother Mollie Gorton organised a GoFundMe appeal to raise cash for Abel-Jax’s funeral, Mailey posted: ‘Please can everyone help me to lay my little spud to rest a little donations. 

‘We are struggling to to lay him to rest and give him the best send off he needs.’

In response Leanne Guest posted: ‘You killed him?? And you’re sick enough to post pictures like your father of the f***ing year.’

Paige Chadwick added: ‘You’ve got to be joking me. How sick and twisted can one person be!!!!!! You’ve taken peoples money to fund the poor boys funeral who you killed. Horrific lowest of the low. I hope to God you get everything you deserve.’

Tom Horne said: ‘Kills his kid then gets a tattoo of his name, that is sickening. That poor baby – I hope your time is prison is absolutely horrific.’

The court was told Mailey had previously shaken little Abel-Jax causing him seven fractured ribs and a bleed on the brain.

At that time the baby was not taken to hospital and was heard making a ‘wincing and hurting’ cry as Mailey and Mollie picked him up and cuddled him. 

When the infant’s unsuspecting mother Mollie Gorton organised a GoFundMe appeal to raise cash for Abekl Jax’s funeral, Mailey posted: ‘Please can everyone help me to lay my little spud to rest a little donations’

Pictured: Mailey celebrating the gender reveal for Abel-Jax in the weeks before the tot was born

On the day of the killing itself – around ten days later – Mollie had gone to work at Burnley FC’s stadium Turf Moor leaving Abel-Jax with his father.

Within 45 minutes of her leaving, Mailey was calling her telling her there was something wrong with their son.

In a video call between the pair, Mollie could see Abel-Jax on Mailey’s knee, his body was limp and lifeless. 

Mailey told Mollie he had been changing him and he felt limp, so he went to feed him but then his arms went floppy and he felt ‘weird’.

Abel-Jax was rushed to Royal Blackburn Hospital before being transferred to Manchester Children’s Hospital for further treatment where he died two days later. 

Doctors concluded he died of a brain injury having been shaken with the ‘force of a car crash.’

Mailey was arrested on the evening of November 28 before being charged with murder the following July. 

He initially denied wrongdoing and pointed suspicion towards Mollie.  

At his trial he eventually confessed to shaking his son in a ‘moment of madness’ as Abel-Jax wouldn’t stop crying.

Mollie, 26, was initially accused of murdering Abel-Jax but was cleared of any wrongdoing. 

In a statement she said: ‘I had to plan my baby’s funeral and I didn’t know where to start or how to do it.

‘My home haunts me as it is filled with so many memories. I live in my bedroom upstairs because I don’t like to be downstairs. I don’t like being alone because when I am on my own I think about it. I do not trust people and don’t think I will trust a man anymore.

The court was told Mailey had previously shaken the little Abel-Jax causing him seven fractured ribs and a bleed on the brain 

One post on Facebook showed Mailey cuddling Abel-Jax in his arms

Another showed him sporting a tattoo on his neck, which he had done after the murder, paying tribute to Abel-Jax

‘I feel like I am stuck and not getting to my destination. I’m still numb and can’t process it. It would help if I could talk to someone but I was told not to. All I am focusing on now is trying to rebuild my life.’

Sentencing Mailey the judge Mr Justice Barry Cotter told him: ‘You knew you had injured a seven-and-a-half-week-old baby badly, he was limp, not breathing properly, if at all, and unresponsive, yet you did not take the immediate and obvious step until two people had told you do so.

‘You had already decided to lie, you lied to the paramedics and continued to lie at the hospital. Mollie accused you of hurting Abel but you denied that you harmed him and appeared to suggest her son had harmed him.

‘Eventually the medical evidence showed an overall pattern of injuries to the brain, eyes and nervous system which was consistent with deliberate and forceful shaking on the morning of 28 November 2021.

‘The injuries caused by shaking, the oxygen starvation, bleeding and swelling, led to Abel-Jax’s collapse and subsequent death.

‘The triad of brain swelling, brain bleeding and eye injuries were consistent with non-accidental head-injury.

‘Abel was not a particularly difficult child – he had a good regime and was a good sleeper, there’s nothing about his behaviour that could come close to driving you to what has been described as your wit’s end.

‘The reason he was crying so much in the days before his death was because you had broken his ribs. You had been woken in the night a couple of times, but this is part and parcel of having a baby. The shaking on both occasions was clearly very violent and you subsequently lied to save your own skin.’

After the case Katie Marsden, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: ‘This is a truly tragic case. In his very short life Abel-Jax was subjected to appalling injuries on more than one occasion at the hands of his father; one of the very people who should have kept him safe.’

Det Ch Insp Jane Webb, of Lancashire Police’s Force Major Investigation Team, said: ‘Abel-Jax’s death is utterly tragic and heart-breaking. It has left his family devastated and no words can describe the unimaginable pain they have suffered and continue to suffer.

‘As Abel-Jax’s father, Oliver Mailey was in a position of trust, there to provide love, support and care. On that day, Mailey abused that trust in the most violent and horrific way. He carried out a shocking attack, which tragically led to Abel-Jax’s death.

‘When interviewed by police, he repeatedly denied knowing anything about how Abel-Jax had come by his injuries. It was only in recent months he admitted shaking Abel-Jax and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, claiming he did not intend to kill or cause serious harm.

‘Mailey is a coward and his actions alone led to the death of his son. We welcome the verdict at court and would like to thank the jury for their careful consideration and giving Abel-Jax a voice.’

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