‘He was quiet and withdrawn, small and painfully thin’, court hears
A “withdrawn” and painfully thin” toddler was subjected to “distress, pain and misery” in the weeks before he was allegedly murdered by his grandparents, a court has heard. Kerry Ives, 46, and her husband Michael, 47, are accused of the murder of their two-year-old grandson Ethan Ives-Griffiths.
He died in hospital on August 16, 2021 after an ambulance was called to their home in Deeside, Flintshire, two days earlier. Mold Crown Court heard the couple blamed his death on their daughter, Ethan’s mother, Shannon Ives.
She is accused along with her parents of causing or allowing his death and of child cruelty. They all deny the charges.
At the opening of their trial on Wednesday, a jury was told Shannon Ives, 28, and her son had been living with her parents in the time leading up to his death.
Caroline Rees KC said: “The prosecution say Ethan’s time at the first and second defendants’ home was thoroughly miserable and he was targeted by the defendants as an object of abuse and neglect.”
She added: “He was quiet and withdrawn, small and painfully thin.”
She said the toddler was exposed to “casual brutality” and, according to a medical expert, would have experienced “distress, pain and misery in the days and weeks prior to his death”.
On the night of August 14, Ethan was downstairs with his grandparents while his mother was upstairs on the phone at the time he sustained his fatal injury, the court heard.
Ms Rees said: “The prosecution say what must have been a forceful attack on Ethan that night was the culmination of physical and emotional neglect and abuse upon him by those who should have cared for him the most.”
Both Michael and Kerry Ives told police their grandson had collapsed suddenly.
Ms Rees said: “The prosecution say these two defendants entered a pact of silence as to what they did to Ethan that night, immediately working together as a team of two to conceal the truth about the reason for his fatal collapse.”
She said the grandparents had chosen to “blame their own daughter” rather than admit what really happened.
“They say it must have been Shannon Ives who inflicted the injuries which led to Ethan’s death,” she said.
Ms Rees said Shannon Ives was aware her parents “represented a significant risk of physical harm” but “took no steps to protect her child”.
In interview, she said she was scared of her parents and knew them to be abusive, the court heard.
Ms Rees said: “She had seen them shaking Ethan in anger on many occasions. She said she was petrified of her father in particular.”
The court heard Kerry Ives delayed calling 999 for almost 20 minutes after Ethan’s collapse, before making the call at 9.21pm. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here
Ethan was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital and then transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital for brain surgery, but was pronounced dead at 6pm on August 16.
He had “serious, catastrophic head injuries” and found to be “severely underweight” and “covered in bruises”, the court heard.
The jury was told he weighed 10kg, or 22lb, when he died and at a post-mortem examination 40 external injuries were observed.
Medical evidence showed his fatal head injury was caused by deliberate use of force which may have included an element of forceful shaking, Ms Rees said.
Abdominal injuries consistent with forceful blows were also found, the court heard.
CCTV footage taken from outside the family home in the weeks before his death showed his mother “standing by, totally unconcerned whilst Ethan was ill-treated and handled by her father in a totally inhumane way”, Ms Rees said.
In clips shown to the court, Michael Ives could be seen carrying his grandson by the top of his arm, “dangling him like a rag doll” and appearing to hit out at him after putting him into the backseat of a car.
Another clip showed Ethan on a trampoline, where Michael Ives was seen to put the toddler’s hands on his head – a technique Ms Rees said was used “to discipline” the child.
Ms Rees said: “We say that footage can properly be described as harrowing, with a view into how traumatic the last weeks of Ethan’s life must have been.”
Michael and Kerry Ives, of Kingsley Road, Garden City, deny murder, an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a person under 16.
Shannon Ives, of Nant Garmon, Mold, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a person under 16.
The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, will continue on Monday.
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