Grace, two, was beaten to death in her high chair
Lying stepdad given life for murder
A STEPDAD who caused terrible injuries to a toddler as she sat in a high chair was jailed for life after he admitted murder.
Adam Jackson, 27, was guilty of a “spontaneous eruption of uncontrolled violence” against two-year-old Grace Thorpe who had been encouraged to call him “Daddy”, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Jackson, 27, was in sole care of Grace at her mother’s home in New Marske, Cleveland, when he hit her at least seven times, fracturing her skull, breaking her left leg and causing serious internal injuries.
She was taken to a Teesside hospital then flown to a specialist children’s unit in Newcastle but died two days later.
Jackson did not ring 999 immediately, but when he did he insisted that Grace had fallen from her chair – until post-mortem evidence disproved his tale. He will serve a minimum
16 and a half years.
Nick Dry, prosecuting, said that Grace’s mum
Alice Quine split from the girl’s father and lived with her own mother. She began seeing Jackson a year before the murder. Her family and friends liked him initially and they moved in together. But Mr Dry said Jackson became bad-tempered if he could not afford cannabis, which he used every day.
Hair samples from Grace showed that she had been exposed to both cannabis and cocaine, the court heard.
Ms Quine had previously asked Jackson to leave their home but the couple got back together.
On the day Jackson murdered her daughter she had left Grace in his care while she went to work, Mr Dry said. Emergency service workers later discovered the toddler badly injured, cold and wearing only a nappy.
Forensic tests showed later than Grace had been sitting in the chair when she suffered her fatal injuries.
Ms Quine said in court her daughter’s murder had devastated the family. She told Jackson: “Nothing justifies the horrible things you have done to my baby. You inflicted a brutal attack on her for no reason.”