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Father jailed for life for deliberately leaving toddler in hot car to die

Justin Ross Harris with his son, Cooper
Justin Ross Harris with his son, Cooper

A father who deliberately left his 22-month-old son to die in a hot car has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Justin Ross Harris, 36, left the toddler in a car park outside his office in Atlanta, Georgia, to die in “the most tortuous, horrific, unimaginable way possible.”

He argued that he had forgotten to drop his son, Cooper, at nursery and that his death had been a tragic accident.

However, during the five-week trial, the jury heard he was sending sexual text messages to underage girls as the boy was outside dying.

He was found guilty of murder last month and has now been sentence to life behind bars.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark said Harris had “callously walked away and left the child in a hot car to swelter and die”.

In addition to the life term for murder, Harris was given an additional 23 years for the other crimes.

Harris was sentence to life (Rex)
Harris was sentence to life (Rex)

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Harris was convicted in November on eight counts, including malice murder as well as charges of child cruelty and sex crimes related to the messages he sent to a teenage girl.

Harris, who was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with his hands and ankles shackled, declined to speak at the sentencing.

Cobb County Senior Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring, the lead prosecutor on the case, said: “I don’t think you could have any other sentence that would be appropriate when somebody’s been convicted of intentionally taking the life of a 22-month-old – not only doing that but doing it in such a painful and deliberate way.”