A 39-year-old man who threw a toddler off the sixth floor of a block of flats in Amsterdam’s Zuidoost district has been jailed for 10 years.

Paul A, who is 39, threw the three-year-old boy over the balcony because he was ‘evil’, the court was told. Paul A said he was under the influence of drink and drugs at the time and remembers nothing of the incident, local broadcaster AT5 reports.

The child, named as Blessing, was the son of his cousin.

The public prosecution department had called for a 16-year sentence for murder. The court, describing the act as ‘inexplicable’, found the defendent guilty of manslaughter.