I want to stretch my legs
What mum’s boyfriend ‘said as he crushed 3-year-old to death with his car seat’
A BOY of three was crushed to death by a car seat because his mother’s boyfriend wanted to stretch his legs out, a court heard yesterday.
Alfie Lamb, who was sitting in the rear footwell of the Audi, ‘was crying so much it sounded like he was choking’ as Stephen Waterson, 25, moved his electric front seat backwards.
But jurors were told Alfie’s mother Adrian Hoare, 23, who was sitting in the back seat behind passenger Waterson with Alfie between her legs, repeatedly told her son to be quiet
Alfie was squashed ‘at the touch of a button’ and died of crush asphyxia, the Old Bailey heard.
Family friend Emilie Williams, 19, was also sitting in the back of the car with her own child in the footwell behind the driver as the group returned home to Croydon, south London, from a shoping ping trip in Sutton in February last year. She told the court: ‘Alfie was crying so much it sounded like he was choking. Alfie was kicking the chair, asking him to move it forward.
‘His feet were under the chair and he was putting his head back. I think I could see his hair but I couldn’t see anything else.’
Williams said Waterson refused to move the chair ‘because he said he had to stretch his legs right out’.
She added: ‘He had enough room but he wanted to stretch them out because his legs are quite long.
‘Alfie didn’t have room for anything. He was just crying but coughing at the same time. Alfie started crying again but Adrian just kept telling him to be quiet.’
Williams told the court Alfie stopped crying around ten minutes before they arrived at Hoare and Waterson’s house.
Asked what happened after Alfie stopped crying, Williams said: ‘No one really said anything after that. [Hoare] just thought he had gone to sleep.
‘As we were pulling up, she thought to wake Alfie up but couldn’t get any [response] and she told him to stop being silly because she thought he was muckaround. She was just calling his name and shaking him. I think he looked pale, I can’t really remember – he wasn’t moving.’ Paramedics were called to Waterson and Hoare’s home to find another man trying to resuscitate Alfie.
The toddler, who was described as a ‘smiley boy’, weighed just 35lb. The car seat applied 180lb of pressure. He suffered a heart attack and died in hospital three days later when his life support was turned off.
Jurors were told Hoare and Waterson lied repeatedly to cover up the events, telling paramedics they had got into a taxi and put Alfie in a child seat where he fell asleep.
Waterson allegedly later threatened Williams and tried to get her to lie about what happened. She said: ‘He said that he’d put me in the boot of his car and get rid of me – he said he’d kill me.’
Waterson is also said to have threatened and assaulted the driver of the car, Marcus Lamb, 22, while Hoare attacked Williams.
The court has previously been told Waterson ‘deliberately’ moved his car seat back twice because he was ‘angered at the noise and fuss’ that Alfie was making, despite his cries of ‘Mummy!’.
Hoare denies manslaughter, child cruelty, and common assault on Williams. Waterson denies manslaughter and intimidation of Mr Lamb by assault. The couple and Williams have pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice by making false statements. The trial continues.
‘He said he’d get rid of me, kill me’