A FORMER serviceman crushed his three-month-old son to death because he could not stand to hear him crying, a court heard yesterday.

Christopher Johnson, 30, had squeezed his son, Aaron, so hard on at least four occasions that ten of his ribs were cracked.

Robin Spencer, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court that Johnson had "quite literally squeezed the life out of him".

Johnson, of Glenallen Gardens, Cullercoats, North Tyneside, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, on March 21 1999, and to causing the baby grievous bodily harm between December 19, 1998 and March 22, 1999.

He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Divorcee Johnson served in the RAF for seven years before his son's death.

Mr Spencer said: "The defendant's rather strict authoritarian views of disciplining small children were evident of the disciplines he himself was subject to in the armed services."

On the night Aaron died, he had woken up crying at about 2.30am.

The court heard that Johnson took the baby downstairs to quieten him, but when he continued crying, Johnson crushed him to death against his chest.

A post-mortem examination showed that the cause of death was asphyxiation, possibly contributed to by the fractured ribs.

After killing his baby son, Johnson returned to bed and fell asleep, the court was told.

The next morning, Aaron's mother, Karen Walker, found him lying face down in his crib.

Initially, the death was put down to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome but after an examination, the rib fractures were discovered.

Brian Forster QC, mitigiating, said: "The defendant told me that what happens to him today is incidental, since what he has done will remain with him for the rest of his life.

"It is difficult to understand how he could do this to a baby, but no one suggests he would have been aware he caused those injuries.