Aurimas Medvedevas
Aurimas Medvedevas battered his daughter to death last year Cambridgeshire Constabulary

A Peterborough man has admitted murdering his nine-week-old daughter on the day her mother returned to work after maternity leave.

Aurimas Medvedevas, 23, inflicted brutal injuries on baby Aukse after being left alone with her at their home in Clifton Avenue, West Town, Peterborough, on Thursday, September 5 last year.

The baby suffered injuries including cuts and bruises all over her body and a post mortem examination described them as being consistent with those sustained in a car crash.

Her 24-year-old mother returned home at about 10.30pm to find her cold and unresponsive in her cot and she was taken to Peterborough City Hospital by both parents, arriving at A&E at about 12.30am on 6 September.

However, the baby was dead on arrival.

A few hours later both parents were arrested at the hospital, after a doctor expressed concern at the number and severity of the baby's injuries.

The victim's mother was eventually released without charge but Medvedevas was charged with murder on September 9 last year and today pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey.

He had been standing trial but that was halted after he indicated he wanted to change his plea.

He is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey next Friday (September 26).

Supt Jon Hutchinson, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: "This was a shocking, brutal crime in which a baby girl who was only nine weeks old was murdered by a person who should have been looking after her.

"Medvedevas simply did not want to look after his daughter and ended up inflicting injuries to her that would prove fatal. He used such violent force that the post mortem examination concluded her injuries were consistent with having been in a car crash or dropped from a one-storey building.

"He then cruelly failed to seek the medical assistance that may well have saved her life.

On his arrest, Medvedevas refused to tell officers the truth, denying he had done anything wrong and allowing the baby's mother to spend four days in custody.

While being interviewed by police he refused to make any comment about how his daughter sustained her injuries and only later came up with an explanation.

"I hope today's conviction provides Aukse's mother with some small comfort, knowing that justice has been done, and allows her to continue rebuilding her life," said Hutchinson.