{"id":158068,"date":"2025-09-21T04:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T04:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158068\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T04:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T04:30:10","slug":"kristopher-matthews-dad-who-let-two-month-old-wither-away-until-he-was-skin-covered-skeleton-learns-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158068\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristopher Matthews: Dad who let two month old wither away until he was \u2018skin covered skeleton\u2019 learns fate"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT<\/p>\n

A dad who said he had no duty to feed his baby because \u201che was the father\u201d, has learnt his fate after the two month old died looking like a \u201cskin covered skeleton\u201d.<\/p>\n

A jury found Alabama father Kristopher Matthews guilty of aggravated child abuse in August and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison this week.<\/p>\n

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The baby, Karson Matthews, was 2.7kg when he was born but weighed \u201csubstantially less\u201d when he died in September 2018, according to the office of District Attorney CJ Robinson.<\/p>\n

In a searing statement on the harrowing case, DA Robinson likened photos of the baby to something straight out of a \u201chorror movie\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an interview with law enforcement, Kristopher Matthews admitted to having never taken Karson to the doctor after being released from the hospital after birth. He claimed he never personally fed his child and had no duty to do so since he was the father,\u201d a statement from the DA\u2019s office read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis withered child\u2019s body was nothing but a dirty, skin covered skeleton,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cA haunting image that no one who saw it will ever forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristopher\u2019s wife, Shirley Matthews, was convicted of the same charges in July 2024 and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe boy\u2019s mother Shirley Matthews was also convicted and sentenced to 20 years behind bars. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cKristopher and Shirley Matthews completely destroyed the life of their baby boy by neglecting his existence until he died,\u201d Robinson wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo question, this is one of the hardest cases we have ever had to prosecute. The suffering and agonizing death of this baby was completely avoidable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvil is real. Honestly, prison is too good for what they deserve, but it\u2019s all the law will allow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Amanda Blaxley described the case as \u201chorrific\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could sentence you to more than 20 years, but the law at the time of this offense handcuffed the prosecution and handcuffs me as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, phone 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Crisis Care Helpline on 1800 199 008.<\/p>\n

Young people seeking support can phone beyondblue on 1300 22 4636 or go to headspace.org.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT A dad who said he had no duty to feed his baby because \u201che was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,2957,1720],"class_list":["post-158068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}