Man given life term for killing wife's child

(First Edition)

A NIGHTCLUB bouncer who beat his wife's child to death in a jealous rage was jailed for life yesterday.

Simon Fryzer, 28, hit 20-month-old Megan with his fists, burned her buttocks with a cigarette lighter and stamped on her feet so hard that her toenails were torn out.

Fryzer, who is 6ft2in tall and weighs 17 stone, terrified his wife Melissa, 27, and attacked her daughter because he was jealous she was another man's child, Richard Wakerley QC, for the prosecution, said at Stafford Crown Court.

Fryzer, of Walshes Estate, Stourport-on-Severn, Hereford and Worcester, had pleaded guilty to murdering Megan in March 1992. His wife admitted a cruelty charge, but denied manslaughter. She was put on probation for three years.

Mr Wakerley told the court the couple had married in 1988, then separated in August 1989. In June of the next year, Melissa gave birth to Megan. Fryzer 'was not the father of that child but before the birth they were reconciled'.

After his arrest, Fryzer told police that Megan was 'crying and I hit her. I slapped her on the head. I stamped on her feet, I do not know why . . . I leant over her and started hitting her. I kept hitting her.'

He added: 'I did it because I could see his face every time I looked at her.'