You murderer!
Mother screams at ex-partner in court as both are found guilty of allowing death of her baby son
A MOTHER sobbed and screamed ‘murderer’ at her expartner yesterday after they were both found guilty of being responsible for the death of her three-week-old son.
Stanley Davis died in hospital from a broken skull and brain haemorrhage aged just 24 days, after previously sustaining 41 other fractures.
Roxanne Davis, 30, and Samuel Davies, 24, had denied causing or allowing his death on March 28 last year but were convicted by a jury.
After the verdicts were announced Davis broke into tears and shouted: ‘You have got it wrong, Sam just tell them you done it. Thanks a lot Sam, you murderer.’
As she was led from the dock, she yelled: ‘No, he killed my baby, he murdered my little baby.’
Judge Jane Miller QC remanded the pair in custody for sentencing next month. Winchester Crown Court heard the couple, who were not married but share similar surnames, had a troubled relationship and had frequent arguments which sometimes turned violent in the days following Stanley’s birth.
Police were called to their flat in Gosport, Hampshire, on March 11 after neighbours reported them shouting.
Footage taken on an officer’s body camera showed Davis holding the tiny baby in her arms. Davies, who was not Stanley’s father, claimed he had been arguing with a friend about some borrowed money. He then stormed out of the flat, saying: ‘I don’t want police at my door.’
Davis told the officer that her boyfriend suffered from mental health problems, adding: ‘He’s normal but he just kicks off like that. It gets to him not being allowed to work.’
The jury was told Stanley had been admitted to hospital for 32 rib fractures and nine more to his arms and legs on three occasions before the fatal head injury was inflicted.
Prosecutors said one of the pair had killed Stanley and the other ‘allowed it to happen’, but they could not say who played which role. The first sign the
infant had suffered any harm was when a health visitor noticed a bruise on his head on March 16.
Around the same time, Davies had taken a photo of a newspaper article about a mother who had taken her dead baby on a bus to avoid detection over its from a head injury.
Stanley’s mother had posted a video on Facebook on March 20 – the day before he was taken to hospital seriously ill – of the boy having a fit, with the comment: ‘My baby is 16 days should he be doing this already.’
Both co- defendants tested positive for cocaine and cannabis when they were arrested on March 21. Stanley was dead a week later.
Davis told the court that when her son was born she was ‘over
the moon’, and added: ‘I had my whole world in my hands.’
Also giving evidence, Davies said he looked after Stanley with his then partner and her family, adding: ‘That baby from day two was passed around like a parcel.’
Carl Anderson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘Duralready
ing post-natal appointments and check-ups, Davis and Davies gave medical staff the impression there were no problems with Stanley and only reported difficulties in getting him to take his milk.
‘The reality was quite different. Both knew Stanley had
suffered serious injuries but neither said anything, leaving Stanley without the medical attention he desperately needed.
‘Both the defendants denied killing Stanley but it was clear from all the evidence that one of them had caused the horrific head injury that killed him.’
After the verdicts, police said the baby’s injuries, which included a three-inch skull fracture, had been ‘truly shocking’.
Detective Chief Inspector Fiona Bitters added: ‘No child should have to suffer in the way that he did.’
Derek Benson, chairman of the Hampshire Safeguarding Children Board, confirmed after the trial that a review is being carried out of the handling of the child’s care by the authorities.
‘Injuries were truly shocking’