Toddler ‘killed by dad’ may have been thrown to the floor
A TODDLER allegedly murdered by her adoptive father was probably ‘shaken violently’ and then thrown against the floor or a wall, a court heard.
Elsie Scully-Hicks died within two weeks of being formally adopted by Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, and his husband Craig, 36.
The 18-month-old girl, from Llandaff, near Cardiff, was rushed to hospital by fitness instructor Matthew Scully Hicks after becoming unresponsive.
Her injuries were similar to those caused by a car crash, the court heard. Medics found she had fractures to her leg, skull and to three ribs.
She also had bleeding to three parts of her brain as well as haemorrhages to both eyes. Four days later, she died at the University Hospital of Wales after suffering extensive brain damage.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Stephen Rose told Cardiff Crown Court yesterday that he believed the fractures to Elsie’s ribs were a result of ‘crushing injuries’, adding that they were likely to have been caused by ‘an adult’s hand around the chest, compressing the chest forcibly’.
Dr Rose said: ‘There must have been a cause of the fracture; skull fractures don’t occur spontaneously and so the only mechanism for a skull fracture is if there was a blow to the head, either during the shaking injury which culminated in Elsie being thrown against a hard floor, or possibly her head being knocked against a wall.’
He said it was likely that Elsie ‘had been shaken violently and that her head had been rocked backwards and forwards so that her head was flexed down on to her chest and flexed backwards’.
He added: ‘This mechanism would then cause the subdural bleeding, or the bleeds around the brain, and the retinal haemorrhages and also it
‘She suffered significant trauma’
would cause her to stop breathing.’ Robert O’Sullivan QC, for the defence, asked Dr Rose if an incident in a car seat where Elsie had been ‘moved back and forth trying to lock it quite forcibly’ could explain her injuries, but the doctor said this was unlikely.
The court also heard how Matthew Scully-Hicks, now of Delabole, Corn- wall, had assaulted and abused Elsie for seven months leading up to her death in May last year.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Marian McGowan also told the court it was ‘ improbable’ that Elsie’s injuries ‘arose separately and coincidentally’.
She said: ‘I think the likelihood is that they are part of a single event... I think the only explanation is that the child had suffered significant trauma.’
Matthew Scully-Hicks told police that on the day Elsie was taken to hospital he had changed her on the rug in the living room and taken her clothes and nappy out of the room.
When he returned two or three minutes later, Elsie was on the floor but not moving or breathing, he claimed.
The court earlier heard that he had acted ‘very strangely’ as she lay dying.
Matthew Scully-Hicks denies one charge of murder. The trial continues.