The man responsible for the brutal murder of baby Zayden appealed his life sentence. Now the court has made their decision.

Update:

Harley Hicks, the man who fatally beat baby Zayden Veal-Whitting to death, has lost his appeal.

Hicks, 22, was previously sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 32 years without parole, for killing the 10-month-old baby while he slept in his cot.

Justice Stephen Kaye rejected Hicks’ appeal, in which his lawyers’ argued he was drug affected at the time.

Justice Kaye referred to Hicks as “utterly evil” and called the case “an appallingly violent and callous murder of a helpless infant”.

Hicks was 19 years old and high on ice when he beat baby Zayden 33 times with a copper wire batton, after breaking into the Veal family home in 2012.

Mamamia previously published this heartfelt letter by Zayden’s mother, Casey Veal.

Warning: This post contains disturbing accounts of child abuse and murder, and may be very distressing for some readers.

On June 15th, 2012, I woke up to a nightmare.

A nightmare I never woke from again. I awoke to find my son, my world, my mini me, stolen…

Zayden Maxwell Kevin Veal-Whitting had been viciously murdered in a frenzied attack causing multiple fatal wounds to my precious boys face and skull.

He had been bashed almost beyond recognition.

I couldn’t even perform the simplest task of giving my son lifesaving CPR as his mouth and throat, amongst others, were severely swollen and unable to take my air.

As I compressed each time with my two huge adult fingers, with the occasional breath begging for life to return to my babies eyes, for his lungs to start breathing, I pleaded and screamed for him to return to me, but no matter how hard I tried each second dragged but flew by without my consent.

Emergency services arrived yet I still felt no comfort, no safety. My baby boy was bruised, bloodied, and his lips a dark purple blue. I waited outside the ambulance praying for the littlest bit of hope. As the time passed it looked darker and darker. Like a cyclone it came, ripped my whole world apart and I was stuck in the eye of it.

I dropped to my knees. From my deepest core I felt the almost primal scream come from inside me; at that moment I was rushed with the most immense heart wrenching pain. Yet I felt completely nothing at all; all at the same time.

As I sat in the ambulance, I cried and screamed at every car to move while we raced for the hospital. It felt like an eternity passed before we arrived at the hospital. Paramedics worked relentlessly on Zayden, the whole time without rest.

I was in a state of complete shock, held around the corner from an ICU room filled with every type of health professional. I was half-standing, half-sitting there; no shoes, bare make up, pyjamas, just shaking and hoping with everything I could that my baby would be okay.

A paramedic ran past where I was situated which set off huge alarm bells and made me run past all the nurses to my son. This is

where I saw the haunting image that fills my nightmares; I saw his lifeless body.

His tiny little boy on a huge hospital bed filled with tubes and wires. Tens of people were working on him; within time he was pronounced dead. My healthy happy beautiful ray of light. My best friend zaydo, he was gone.

It was an hour and a half before anyone could be notified of the nightmare I had endured. I held Zayden the whole time; speaking to him.

I repeatedly told him I loved him so much. I begged him to come back to me, apologising for failing him.

I felt my biggest job as a parent, as his mummy, was to protect him. To keep him happy and safe.

Yet he had been stolen from me; murdered in his own bedroom in our family home.

It was meant to be our haven, yet here I am holding my lifeless son.

The sparkle had left his eyes, the colour from his cheeks, his smile disappeared. Everything I had planned, everything I had ever wanted; the reason for my determination and drive in life. He was gone.

The sparkle left my eyes; never to return again. I exist more than live my life. Everyday, every second, I miss my son. This is only the beginning of the life long story in Zayden’s memory.

Casey Veal often holds fundraisers in the memory of her little boy.

The latest one was the Teddy Bear Drive, held last year, which raised over $1000.

You can visit the Facebook page for the fundraiser by clicking here.

You can also buy a t-shirt in Zayden’s memory here.