A MAN who dropped his three-year-old daughter from a bridge into a river below has been found guilty of intentionally causing her grievous bodily harm.

At Manchester Crown Court Damien Smith, aged 40, had been on trial for the attempted murder of the child but, after several hours of deliberations, a jury was unable to reach a verdict and found him guilty of the lesser charge.

The Crown Prosecution Service is now considering whether there should be a retrial on the attempted murder charge and the case is due to go before Mr Justice William Davis on Thursday.

During the three-day trial the court heard how Smith, who had been ranting about aliens and talking to people were not there, dangled his daughter over a bridge wall by one arm, repeatedly telling police and people nearby “I am going to heaven and I’m taking my little girl with me.”

As he lowered her over the bridge over Eagley Brook in Crompton Way, Astley Bridge, she pleaded: “Daddy, don’t let go”, but his response was to tell her to “shut up”.

And when the terrified child tried to cling to his leg, he told her “get off my leg” and forced her away.

The court heard that a member of the public had spotted Smith on the bridge at 8.20pm on September 29 last year.

Police were called after Smith threatened the the passerby and warned he was going to throw the child, in her pram, over the wall.

Police officers spent 90 minutes trying to talk Smith out of killing himself and his child.

But eventually he dropped the little girl into water below, telling them: “There, I’ve dropped her.”

A police negotiator told the court that Smith, of Le Gendre Street, Bolton, had shown no warmth towards the child and, after dropping her, had expressed no shock or remorse.

Fortunately, the little girl suffered only a fractured shoulder and wrist and was pulled from the brook by a police officer below. Smith was arrested after also jumping into the water five minutes later.

During the trial the court heard how Smith had been acting strangely in the weeks leading up to incident.

Janet Andrews, his partner of a few months, described Smith as “warm and caring”, but said that he had begun to watch end-of-the-world videos on YouTube and believed comet was going to destroy the planet.

At one point he accused Ms Andrews of being a witch who was controlling his daughter’s eyes.