Women ‘killed toddler by stamping on her tummy’
A MOTHER and her partner murdered her 16-month-old daughter by causing internal injuries that killed her “in minutes”, a court heard.
Little Star Hobson’s mother Frankie Smith, 20, and Savannah Brockhill, 28, then tried to blame the horrific injuries on a two-year-old.
A court heard Star suffered a split to the liver, a tear to the bowel and bruising to the lower part of the lungs and the pancreas after her stomach was stamped on, punched or kicked.
A jury at Bradford Crown Court heard the two women searched online for “shock in babies” and waited 15 minutes before calling 999 on September 22 last year.
The jury was told that the main vein carrying blood back to the toddler’s heart from the legs and organs of the abdomen had been torn, causing major blood loss.
Alistair MacDonald QC, prosecuting, said the injuries were caused by “forceful blow or blows in the form of punching, stamping or kicking”. He said: “The effect of such injuries was immediate. Heavy bleeding into the abdominal cavity caused a catastrophic drop in blood pressure and unconsciousness and death within seconds to minutes.”
Medics found Star lifeless, pale and wearing only a disposable nappy at the flat in Keighley, West Yorks. She was in cardiac arrest and taken to Airedale hospital six minutes away. But doctors could not save her.
Mr MacDonald said “there never was any real chance of saving her life”, adding: “The ambulance was called at 3.49pm and death was pronounced at 4.59pm so it all happened in a very short period of time.”
The couple initially tried to pin the blame on another child when quizzed by police, Mr MacDonald told the court.
He said: “Each gave an account of Star being in the living room with a two-yearold child and another smaller child, when Frankie Smith said she was using the lavatory and Savannah Brockhill said she was in the kitchen.”
But he called the claim that “another young child” could have caused the injuries “nothing short of absurd”.
Star had also suffered other “significant injuries at different times during her short life” and had been “repeatedly physically assaulted over the weeks and months before her death”, the court heard.
A fractured skull, two fractures to her shin bone “caused by forceful twisting” and an old brain injury were found.
Mr MacDonald said: “Despite the catalogue of injuries... at no time was Star taken for medical help.
“It is also the case that social services, who were aware of Star’s case, were kept away from Star.”
Both Smith and Brockhill deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.