A FORMER Ipswich man who was found guilty of injuring a child in his care was today sentenced to three years in a young offenders institute.Luke Sims, 20, of Ely, Cambridgeshire was convicted of the offence after a child he had been looking after was found to have a number of injuries - including a broken arm and broken ribs.

A FORMER Ipswich man who was found guilty of injuring a child in his care was today sentenced to three years in a young offenders institute.

Luke Sims, 20, of Ely, Cambridgeshire was convicted of the offence after a child he had been looking after was found to have a number of injuries - including a broken arm and broken ribs.

Sims denied two offences of inflicting grievous bodily harm on the child with intent and an alternative offence of inflicting grievous bodily harm but was found guilty.

He told paramedics the child had struck its head on part of the wooden frame of a settee and on another occasion had hit its head as he carried it through a doorway.

But prosecutors said the symptoms could not be explained by the child banging its head in this way.

When the child was admitted to hospital it was found to have a significant number of non-accidental injuries. These included five broken ribs and a fractured bone in the left forearm.

There were also retinal haemorrhages and signs of bleeding into the brain consistent with forcible shaking.

Sims was convicted in October after a jury at Ipswich Crown Court found him guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on the child with intent.

His co-defendant Carly Morris, 18, of Burrell Road, Ipswich, was cleared of four offences of child cruelty.