Monday, February 9, 2026
A man has today admitted to killing his baby son in Fulwood.
Our officers were called to Squires Wood at around 1.30am on 14th June 2022, to a report that six-week-old baby Huxley Sayle had been taken to Royal Preston Hospital unresponsive and with a head injury. He was later transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Despite the best efforts of medical personnel, Huxley’s injuries were too severe to be compatible with life and treatment was withdrawn on 14th July 2022.
On 17th June 2022, Huxley’s father Peter Sayle was arrested at his home in Fulwood on suspicion of Section 18 Wounding.
During the police interview, Sayle denied any wrongdoing, stating that injuries caused would have been a result of him performing CPR on Huxley.
On 22nd June 2022 and having reviewed the results of a CT scan, medical experts at the children’s hospital concluded that Huxley had suffered a number of skull and brain injuries. The author of the report indicated that those injuries would have resulted in immediate symptoms and were consistent with Huxley having been violently shaken.
On 22nd July 2022 – and with more evidence available indicting that Huxley had come to deliberate harm - Sayle was re-arrested on suspicion of murder.
Again, he denied any wrongdoing.
A Home Office postmortem examined later established that baby Huxley’s cause of death was traumatic head injury, and that no natural disease had caused his traumatic collapse.
Dr Alison Armour also concluded that the two rib fractures Huxley had suffered were inconsistent with having been caused by CPR, and were more likely caused while he was forcefully gripped or squeezed around the chest during an episode of vigorous shaking.
Sayle was interviewed for the final time on 27th March 2025 and denied forcibly shaking Huxley and said he had done nothing to cause his son’s collapse.
An examination of Sayle’s phone, found a number of concerning web searched that had been made shortly after Huxley’s birth. These included: “tips to deal with frustration and anger”, “baby crying makes me angry dad”, and “I’m getting so angry when baby won’t sleep”.
On the fifth day of trial at Preston Crown Court, Sayle, 32, now of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to Huxley’s manslaughter. That plea was acceptable to the prosecution.
Sayle will be sentenced at Preston Crown Court on Thursday (12th February).