Ten years for mum and her ex-love who killed little girl by keeping her tied in cage
A MOTHER and her former partner have been locked up for 10 years for causing her 19-month-old toddler’s death by keeping her tied down in a pitch-dark “cage”.
Ellie-May Minshull-Coyle died in March last year in Preston as a result of their “extreme and dreadful cruelty”.
Mother Lauren Coyle, 20, and her ex-partner Reece Hitchcott, also 20, were convicted earlier this month and sentenced yesterday.
The trial heard the child’s bed at the flat was enclosed by the slatted sides of a cot lashed together with ligatures and electrical flex and tied to the bed frame.
Sheets and bedding over the sides prevented her seeing outside and no lights were working inside her bedroom.
There were also marks on the child’s wrists and ankles, suggesting she had been tied to the bed, the jury heard.
Dreadful
A post-mortem examination found that Ellie-May died due to “forcible restraint by ligatures in a face-down position complicated by hypothermia”.
Sentencing Coyle and Hitchcott at Liverpool Crown Court, Mr Justice Dove said that keeping Ellie-May in the cage “was a clear and obvious risk”.
He added: “It was an act of extreme and dreadful cruelty which was the polar opposite of the parental care Ellie-May was entitled to receive.”
Both adults will serve out their sentence in a Young Offender Institution.
In an emotional victim impact statement, Ellie-May’s father John Minshull said: “We will always have a gap in our lives that can’t be filled.
“We just wish we could give her a big hug and it breaks my heart deeply. He said Ellie-May “made every day better”, adding: “My life can never be complete again without her.
“We were lucky having her even for the short time she was in our lives.
“I said to myself Ellie-May was going to be the only child I would have in my life.
“Now I can’t be a dad to her anymore, it destroys me inside.”
Coyle, of Bamber Bridge, said the bed had been converted by Hitchcott, of Fulwood, Preston, to get Ellie-May into a sleeping routine.
Both were cleared of Ellie-May’s manslaughter but convicted of “causing or allowing Ellie-May’s death”, one count of child cruelty by caging her and another count of child cruelty by restraining her.
James Pickup, QC, defending Hitchcott, said he was only 18 at the time and was “immature” and has an “inability to problem solve”. John Jones, defending Coyle, said since the trial she “has suffered a hate campaign” and added: “Incarceration is going to be unpleasant in the extreme.”
Detective Chief Inspector Zoe Russo, of Lancashire Police, said it was “the most distressing case that myself and the team have ever had to deal with”.