A student has been cleared of murdering his baby after claiming it happened while he was dancing.

Alvaro Serrano, 25, walked free from Lewes Crown Court after a jury found him not guilty of deliberately killing his eight-week-old daughter Katalina. Mr Serrano was arrested after Katalina was critically injured in an incident at his home in Valence Road, Lewes, while her mother was out shopping.

The prosecution claimed the baby died after being shaken forcibly and coming into contact with a hard surface, but Mr Serrano claimed he accidentally dropped her on to a sofa arm while dancing around.

In an unusual move, Mr Justice Wright ordered that the two-seat sofa be brought into the court hallway for jurors to examine. Jurors heard Katalina's mother Natalie White had gone out with her mother one day last June, leaving Mr Serrano and the baby in the house.

But an hour after she left, Mr Serrano alerted neighbours that the baby was ill and Katalina was taken to hospital with serious head injuries. Mr Serrano, studying to be a photographer, made his salsa admission in a letter to his girlfriend from his prison cell six weeks after the baby's death.

Before that, he had claimed that Katalina had suddenly started vomiting for no reason. He said in the letter to Ms White: "You know how much Katalina and I loved dancing. After you left I started to listen to a salsa cassette. We danced for a long while, as we always did, turning round and going backwards and forwards.

"I do not know how it happened but I tripped over my own feet and fell straight to the floor. But Katalina did not. She hit the corner of the sofa and as she landed immediately started vomiting. Katalina's eyes were closed and I started to panic. Please forgive me for not telling you this before but I did not want you to think I was a stupid father."

Mr Serrano told the jury he had danced with Katalina for five tunes before tripping over. He felt "ashamed" after the accident and decided not to tell police straight away.

The jury were told Ms White and Mr Serrano had met in Colombia in 1993 when she was living there for a year as part of a university degree.

She fell pregnant in 1998 and Mr Serrano moved to England five days before his daughter was born. After being cleared, Mr Serrano said: "I love Natalie and I hope she can understand. I love England too but I want to return to Colombia to carry on my life."

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