Harrison attacked his son before driving to a country park four hours later, where he made a call to 999 saying the boy had fallen out of a tree.

A man who brutally beat his 11-year-old son and then waited four hours to call an ambulance has been jailed for life after admitting to his murder.

Michael Harrison, 41, inflicted fatal injuries on “malnourished” Mikey Harrison at his home in Heanor, Derbyshire, on June 18 last year.

Four hours later, he drove to Heanor’s Shipley Country Park, where he made a 999 call to the ambulance service from his van and falsely claimed that Mikey had fallen out of a tree.

Opening the case against Harrison, prosecutor Peter Joyce KC said paramedics arrived to find Mikey gasping for breath before going into cardiac arrest.

The boy, who weighed just 11 pounds at the time of the attack, was taken to Nottingham hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:39 p.m.

Mikey had suffered multiple blunt force injuries, but could have been saved with prompt treatment, the court heard.

Handing down sentence, Judge Shaun Smith KC said Harrison had punched and punched Mikey “many times”, including one blow that was “so hard it ripped open his liver”.

After the assault, Harrison stripped the property where he and Mikey had been living “of almost every item one would expect to find in a home,” the court heard.

Joyce alleged that Harrison had also cleaned up the scene of the attack to eliminate any possibility of evidence being found in relation to what he had done to Mikey.

The judge told Harrison: “Instead of facing what he had done, he called the ambulance service to report that Mikey had fallen out of a tree.

“What you did that morning ended the life of a small child and emptied the lives of many others.”

The judge added that what happened during the assault was the result of Harrison “freaking crazy” when he damaged the furniture and caused multiple blunt force injuries to Mikey.

Harrison initially pleaded guilty to manslaughter but last month admitted to the murder.

He will have a minimum mandate of 21 years and six months.

Offering mitigation, defense attorney Vanessa Marshall KC had said Harrison would have to endure the “terrible, tragic and unforgivable” death of her son for the rest of her life.

Presenting that Mikey’s death was the result of an “isolated outburst of gratuitous violence”, Marshall claimed that Harrison had vacated the property amid safety concerns, after being kidnapped and stabbed by a gang in 2006.

Harrison leaned forward in his seat facing the ground, shielding his face from the public gallery, for most of his two-hour sentencing hearing on Thursday.

After being sentenced, Harrison, who was wearing a white T-shirt with the word “FAMILY” printed on the front, gestured toward members of the media.

He said: “I will always love my family no matter what they say. Put on whatever version you want.”