AUGUSTA — A former Farmingdale man pleaded guilty Tuesday to an aggravated assault charge in connection with an injury that caused his 7-month-old son’s brain to bleed.

Patrick A. Brown, 34, now of Lewiston, was ordered to serve an initial two years in prison, with the remainder of a five-year sentence suspended, and a two-year period of probation.

The hearing was held at the Capital Judicial Center.

Judge Evert Fowle permitted Brown to report to jail Oct. 19 to begin serving the sentence.

The injuries to the infant, a doctor told an investigator in the case, were similar to that suffered seven years ago by the baby’s brother.

That child was taken into state custody in 2006.

Brown’s defense attorney, Kevin Sullivan, said he was told Brown and his wife terminated their parental rights to the younger child as well shortly after the Feb. 6 report from Maine Medical Center in Portland about the 7-month-old’s unexplained injuries.

According to a court affidavit by Maine State Police Detective Joshua Birmingham, Brown initially denied harming the boy and said the child had been born prematurely at 2 pounds, 2 ounces.

The baby’s mother also denied harming the infant.

Later, Brown told police he squeezed the baby’s ribs and yelled at him to stop the child’s crying, and sometimes threw him into his crib from a foot away, saying he was more careless with the child between mid-November and late December 2014. Birmingham said Brown told his parents he might have hurt the baby.

Birmingham also included in his affidavit a paragraph from the report of Dr. Lawrence Ricci, a pediatrician specializing in treating child abuse victims. Ricci describes the baby as “a 7-month-old male infant who presents with a constellation of findings” that showed brain and skeletal injuries that occurred over multiple episodes of physical abuse. Ricci also wrote, “It is sad that this child had similar injuries to his full sibling … seven years ago who was also profoundly physically abused.”

Earlier the doctor told police that the baby had “new and old subdural hematomas and new and old rib fractures as well as a possible skull fracture,” according to the affidavit. The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh, said Brown had no prior criminal record.

He also said the child had recovered.