‘I hope he rots in jail,’ says mother of toddler Kayden as ex-partner is convicted of killing her young son
THE mother of a Londonderry toddler killed by her ex-partner has said she hopes he “rots in jail”.
A jury yesterday took just 80 minutes to find Liam Whoriskey guilty of the manslaughter of three-year-old Kayden McGuinness in the child’s family home.
Following an 18-day trial at Londonderry Crown Court, the jury of six men and five women also found Whoriskey unanimously guilty of inflicting child cruelty on Kayden.
Whoriskey will be sentenced on November 29.
Outside, Kayden’s mother Erin McLaughlin, who became engaged to Whoriskey five days before the death of her son Kayden, said she believed justice had been done.
“It has been a very, very difficult time,” she said.
“I am happy with the outcome and I hope he rots in jail.
“Nobody can ever understand how difficult it is to have lost a child in this way.”
There was uproar in courtroom number four yesterday afternoon when the jury foreman announced the two guilty verdicts.
Kayden’s mother Erin McLaughlin, together with members of her family, were in the packed public gallery alongside members of Whoriskey’s family.
Police reinforcements were also present in the courtroom when the jurors’ verdicts were announced.
People in the public gallery shouted “thank you” to the jurors and Whoriskey was also verbally abused as he was taken from the dock to the cell below.
Whoriskey shook his head as he stood in the dock when the jury foreman announced the verdicts.
Jurors found Whoriskey unanimously guilty of killing Kayden between the evening of September 16 and the morning of September 17, 2017, when he was babysitting the child and the child’s baby sister.
The child cruelty conviction related to an incident on August 15, 2017, when Kayden was found to have sustained a bruised nose and two black eyes.
On a second charge of child cruelty between September 6 and September 16, 2017, trial judge Philip Babington instructed the jury to find the defendant not guilty by direction.
Judge Babington then excused the jurors from future jury duty for life. He told jurors it had been a very emotional case for them to have to hear. Following the verdicts, members of Whoriskey’s family, including his mother and his grandparents, were separately led out of the court building via a side door.
During the trial, jurors heard evidence from 27 prosecution witnesses and from four defence witnesses.
They were told that Whoriskey had the sole overnight custody of Kayden in the family flat at Colmcille Court when the child’s mother went out socialising with family members and friends.
Kayden was found dead by Whoriskey just before 10am on September 17, some 15 hours after the child had gone to bed.
He had 15 bruises to his scalp and face, none of which was visible to either his mother nor to Whoriskey when the child went to bed.
Kayden, the court heard, had died as a result of 15 blunt trauma injuries which caused bleeding and swelling of his brain.
Following the guilty verdicts, members of Kayden’s family and members of Whoriskey’s family exchanged verbal insults before the courtroom was cleared.
Judge Babington remanded Whoriskey in custody until a plea and sentencing hearing on November 29.
He ordered the preparation of pre-sentence reports and of victim impact statements for that date.