A FATHER convicted of murdering his baby son was today taking his estranged wife to court to demand visitation rights to their daughter.

Sharon Oldacre, 26, has spent three years rebuilding her life after husband Paul murdered their son Jamie when he was just seven months old in September 1999.

Mr Oldacre was convicted of murder in November 2000 after repeatedly punching Jamie, who died of internal bleeding after his liver was ruptured three times, because he wouldn't stop crying.

Now he is taking Mrs Oldacre to court to demand the right to contact their four-year-old daughter Savannah while he serves his sentence and to visit her on his release.

Mrs Oldacre, of Walcot, says she fears for her daughter's safety if he is allowed to ever see her again.

She said: "I have been told by social services that she is not at risk but if Paul was ever to come back into regular contact they would need to reconsider.

"I understand that Paul wants to go to court to have his say but if he is granted contact it is like telling me that this man murdered your son and now he can have his way with your daughter.

"I believe she would be getting into danger."

The hearing will be held in the judge's chambers, a private form of hearing not open to the press or public.

Mrs Oldacre says that Savannah witnessed her brother's murder and has had nightmares ever since.

She said: "She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, 'No daddy, no'. Some months she is okay and others it can happen three or four times a night.

"Before the trial I visited Paul and we didn't talk about what happened, but as soon as I heard the police tape of his interview I knew that I never wanted to see him again.

"He said on the tape that he punched our baby hard and intended to hurt him to stop him crying.

"As soon as I heard that I knew that it was over. It sounds horrible but I wanted to hurt him as much as he hurt our son. I didn't want to believe my husband could do such a thing."

Mr Oldacre was given a life sentence but Mrs Oldacre believes he is set to serve only nine years.

It was claimed in court that Mr Oldacre has a mental age of eight, and his IQ of 70 places him in the lowest two per cent of the population in terms of intelligence.

The jury heard that on the morning of Jamie's death Mrs Oldacre went to her job at a factory leaving her husband to care for their two children.

Mr Oldacre told the court that he felt a bit funny because he was woken up by the children crying at 10am, and he liked to stay in bed.

He said that when he got up Jamie was crying and he kept telling him to stop crying, but when he wouldn't stop he started punching him in the chest and stomach.

The pathologist Dr Hugh White said a post mortem revealed Jamie had more than 20 bruises to his chest, abdomen, legs and face.

He also discovered three broken ribs and three splits of the liver, which lead to his death from internal bleeding after losing a third of his blood.

At an earlier hearing Oldacre admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and a lack of relevant intent, but the Crown rejected this and insisted on a murder charge.