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The brain injury suffered by Alexander Ness, who was convicted last year of killing his infant son Caleb in 200, was “overstressed” in the O’Brien inquiry report into Caleb’s death, according consultant neuropsychiatrist Dr Alan Carson, writes Maggie Wood.

Speaking at a conference on brain injury and child protection in Glenrothes last week, Carson, from the Scottish Neurobehavioural Rehabilitation Service, said that criminal and cultural factors that existed before a brain injury should play a greater part in assessing risk to children than a brain injury itself.

He added that the brain injury suffered by Ness was probably a “relatively minor factor” in the death of Caleb, and that he would have put “more weight” onto pre-existing behaviour.

But report author Susan O’Brien QC told the conference that Ness’s criminal history prior to his brain injury indicated that Ness had a history of violence towards adults only.

“The police were quite clear that there was no evidence that Ness had ever behaved badly towards children in the past,” O’Brien said.