‘I lost the plot and leathered him... I don’t want him’
Chilling texts of foster mum on trial for murder of one-year-old
A FOSTER mother murdered a baby boy she was hoping to adopt – just weeks after telling social workers she was struggling to bond and ‘didn’t love him,’ a court heard yesterday.
Leiland-James Corkill was placed with Laura Castle, 38, and her husband Scott, 35, after an application
the placement, a social worker to Cumbria County warned the couple that the Council. adoption was unlikely to be
But horrifying messages on made permanent after Castle their phones later revealed revealed that she ‘didn’t love’ that within weeks, Castle had the one-year-old. already been violent towards Despite this, the couple were the child, telling her husband: allowed to continue caring for ‘I really lost the plot and leathered Leiland-James. By then, and him – I don’t want him’, unbeknown to social workers, Preston Crown Court heard.
Another read: ‘He’s an absolute moaning winge bag and I totally regret doin this. I’m goin to lose my mind. He just p **** s me off all the time. I need to stop smacking him.’
A further text said: ‘I’ve just leathered him again. I don’t wanna do this. I’m seriously at my wit’s end, no one tells you about all this s***. I’m just an abusive parent, so it seems.’
And just three months into the couple were physically and verbally abusing the boy.
In January last year, just five months after Leiland-James was first placed with the couple, Castle dialled 999 to say he had fallen from their sofa in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and banged his head. Doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool raised concerns that his ‘catastrophic’ head injuries, which caused a bleed on his brain, were not consistent with a fall.
Leiland-James died the next day on January 7. Pathologist Dr Alison Armour concluded that his injuries suggested he had been vigorously shaken or the back of his head was deliberately banged on an object.
Castle admits killing LeilandJames but denies murder. Her husband, an aerospace nightshift worker, denies causing or allowing the death of a child.
Both also deny two charges of child cruelty.
Prosecutor Michael Brady QC said: ‘Set against a background of frustration, borne out of highly stressful domestic circumstances, including financial difficulties and inability to bond with Leiland, Castle’s frustrations turned to hostility as evidenced by her physical abuse of him, culminating in his murder.’
In September 2019, the Castles were approved for adoption of a child up to 12 months old and Leiland-James was handed over to them on August 22, 2020.
Scott Castle failed to take his wife ‘to task’ for the violence, the jury heard, and instead told her she was ‘doing an amazing job’. By November, social services had concerns and a review concluded the adoption would not be made permanent until therapeutic work had been done. The trial continues.
‘Absolute moaning whinge bag’