A HAMPSHIRE father will today visit the grave of the baby son he has admitted killing.

Today would have been the first birthday of Johnathon Skinner, but on August 22 last year, aged just 11 weeks old, the baby was killed by his father Richard, pictured above right.

Yesterday at Winchester Crown Court 33-year-old Skinner admitted the mans-laughter of the baby.

The court was told that Skinner will make a supervised visit to the cemetery where his son is buried, the location of which has not been revealed.

Anthony Davies QC, defending, said: "Tomorrow would have been the first birthday of Johnathon, the baby who died.

"Arrangements have been made to visit the grave. It would be of assistance if bail was continued in what we suggest is an exceptional case.

"The plea will come as no surprise.

"It was indicated early that he accepted his guilt," said Mr Davies.

Skinner, of Kenson Gardens, Sholing, Southampton, attended a ten-minute hearing yesterday.

He appeared in court wearing a dark suit, lilac shirt and blue tie.

No details were given as to how Skinner had killed his baby son.

The Recorder of Winchester, Judge Michael Brodrick, adjourned the case to Friday, June 29, to allow time for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

The judge granted Skinner conditional bail until the next court date, but told him that that was no indication of the likely sentence.

"The fact you are being granted bail and I am ordering a pre-sentence report does not mean that I'm giving any indication of the eventual outcome of the case," he said.

"All sentencing options are open, and one is an immediate custodial sentence.

"It seems whichever judge has the sentencing in this case is going to have to balance an number of extremely delicate factors.

"One of these will be the continuing relationship with the remaining members of the family.

The judge added: "It seems it would be wrong to pre-empt what has been put in place and is working satisfactorily by an immediate remand in custody."