Baby ‘shaken to death after visit from a social worker’
A Ten-weeK-oLD baby was murdered by her parents just hours after a social worker visited, a court heard yesterday.
Lily-Mai Hurrell Saint George had 18 rib fractures, broken leg bones and a fatal head injury caused when parents Lauren Saint George and Darren Hurrell allegedly shook her to death.
After being born prematurely at 31 weeks in november 2017, she spent her first two months in hospital.
Hospital staff who suspected the couple – who had formerly been homeless for years – could not cope with their newborn failed to prevent her being released into their care. Six days later she was dead.
Social services did not act on warning signs, wood Green Crown Court in north London heard yesterday.
on January 31, 2018, her 25-yearold mother rang 999 from their home
‘Hospital staff were horrified’
in Tottenham, north London, to say her daughter was not breathing.
Prosecutor Sally o’neill QC said: ‘Lily-Mai’s parents were responsible for her death and these fatal injuries were caused to Lily-Mai by forceful shaking shortly before that 999 call.’
Hospital staff were horrified when Saint George told staff she ‘ hated’ the noises her baby made, it was said. They also noticed her struggling to bond with her daughter and the couple were seen arguing.
Social services promised to make unscheduled visits when the baby was discharged on January 25.
The day before, police were called to a incident in which Hurrell allegedly threatened to hit Saint George, but officers took no further action.
Lead social worker Theresa Ferguson went on holiday on the day of the discharge until January 29. After three visits it was decided to activate a child protection plan. Miss Ferguson visited the couple to say they had to go into a residential unit – four hours before the alleged murder on January 31.
Miss o’neill said Saint George ‘reacted by becoming irate and saying she wasn’t going into a unit’. But Hurrell agreed to take his daughter to the unit the next day.
At 9pm his partner dialled 999 to say the baby wasn’t breathing, Miss o’neill said. A CT scan later revealed bleeding in the baby’s brain. She was taken to Great ormond Street Hospital, but died on February 2. none of the medical issues at her birth contributed to her death, experts said. Her parents deny murder, manslaughter, causing or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty. The trial continues.