A thug who tried to blame his puppy for a horror murder bid of a baby has been jailed for 12 years.

Paul Carlton, 25, of Glasgow’s Nitshill, violently shook the eight-week old boy, leaving him with life changing brain injuries on August 9, 2017.

Carlton claimed he had been briefly tidying his garden when he heard a cry from inside.

He told how he had left the boy in his flat in his baby swing alone with his two dogs.

Carlton described one of the pets – a cross American Bulldog-staffordshire terrier puppy called Sapphire – as “boisterous”.

He said he could “speculate” Sapphire seriously injured the baby as he did not.

But jurors found Carlton guilty of attempted murder and he was today sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.

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Lord Burns told him: “These cases are always tragic. The boy has been rendered helpless by your actions.

“He was as vulnerable a child as could possibly be imagined.

“You have tried to deflect responsibility by various means but the jury found you guilty.

“He is now wholly dependent on his mother and others.”

The baby was found to have suffered massive brain damage, consistent with “a shaking injury”.

Carlton denied being responsible for what happened, saying he “would never hurt a child”.

Jurors were told the child – now aged two – cannot crawl, walk or talk.

It emerged during the trial Carlton had previously been violent to the boy's mum.

This included headbutting her causing her nose to bleed.