Satan in a baby-grow
How gay father described the adopted baby daughter that he shook to death, court told
A GAY father accused of shaking his adopted baby daughter to death described her as ‘Satan dressed up in a babygrow’, a court heard.
Fitness instructor Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, is charged with murdering 18-month- old Elsie after ‘assaulting and abusing’ her over seven months.
A court was told yesterday that Elsie went to live with Scully-Hicks and his husband Craig, a company director, in Cardiff in September 2015.
Formal adoption was granted on May 12 last year. On May 25, Elsie suffered head injuries consistent with being gripped and violently shaken. She died four days later.
Jurors were told Scully-Hicks had repeatedly assaulted Elsie while Craig was at work. He told his husband and doctors her injuries were accidents.
Prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said: ‘The injuries that caused Elsie’s death were inflicted upon her by the defendant shortly before he called the emergency services on that day.
‘We allege that his attack on her on that day was not the first time he had employed violence towards Elsie, nor was it the first time he had caused her serious injury.
‘We allege that his actions on the evening of May 25 were the tragic culmination of a course of violent con- duct towards a defenceless child – an infant he should have loved and protected but whom he instead assaulted, abused and ultimately murdered.’
Cardiff Crown Court heard ScullyHicks had been struggling to cope as a stay-at-home father. Jurors were read iPad messages that he sent to Craig in which he referred to Elsie as ‘a psycho’ and ‘Satan dressed up in a baby-grow’.
He also sent texts to friends describing parenting difficulties. For example, on September 22, 2015 – 12 days after Elsie went to live with them – he sent one that read: ‘I’m going through hell with Elsie! Mealtimes and bedtime are like my worst nightmare. She’s been up there screaming for ten minutes non-stop.’
Neighbour Susan Bevan said she had heard Scully-Hicks shouting ‘shut the f*** up’ to a crying child. Her son James said he heard him shout: ‘ Shut up you little f****** brat.’
In the months that followed, Elsie was repeatedly abused while under the care of Scully-Hicks, the court heard.
On November 5, 2015, she hurt her right leg while Craig was at work. Four days later an X-ray revealed a fracture above her right
‘Assaulted, abused and murdered’
ankle. On December 16, 2015, while Craig was again at work, Elsie sustained a bruise to the left side of her forehead.
On January 18 last year, Elsie suffered another bruise to her head, and two months later, on March 10, Craig received a call from his husband saying she had fallen down the stairs. She was discharged after four hours in hospital, the court heard.
On May 25, Scully-Hicks, who was alone with Elsie and her adoptive sibling, phoned 999 to report that Elsie had become unresponsive. Mr Lewis said: ‘Scully-Hicks told an emergency operator, “I was just changing my daughter for bed and she went all floppy and limp, and now she’s not doing anything. She is lying on the floor.”
‘You will observe at no stage during the call did he suggest Elsie had suffered an accident, nor any trauma that might have caused her injury.’
Police and paramedics arrived at the home to find Elsie having a cardiac arrest on the floor.
Elsie’s heart rhythm was restored at hospital, where scans showed recent and older signs of bleeding on both sides of her brain. Her con- dition deteriorated and two days later a decision was taken to turn off her ventilator.
The court heard reviews of an earlier X-ray found two fractures in Elsie’s right leg that could not have been caused by a fall. Doctors also found previously unknown fractures in her left leg.
A post-mortem found Elsie suffered bleeding behind both eyes, as well as rib fractures, and a skull fracture caused by a recent blow to the head.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Stephen Rose said he believed Elsie’s bleeds and the cardiac arrest were caused by being ‘shaken violently’. He also said he believed Elsie had suffered a blunt head injury and the fractured ribs were caused by ‘compression’.
Elsie was removed from her mother, a drug user, within days of her birth in November 2014, the court heard. She was placed in the care of Vale of Glamorgan Council before going to live with the Scully-Hickses in September 2015, aged ten months.
The court heard Scully-Hicks has no criminal convictions. He denies one charge of murder.
The trial continues.