Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Pair await fate as jurors retire in baby murder trial
Verdicts due in case of tragic 18-month-old
Jurors have retired to consider their verdicts in the trial of a mother and her former boyfriend who stand accused of murdering a baby boy. Little Alfie Phillips died in November 2020, with a jury hearing harrowing details of the toddler’s death in a trial that started more than seven weeks ago.
Alfie’s mother, Sian Hedges, 27, and her then partner Jack Benham, 35, are alleged to have subjected the 18-month-old to a sustained and fatal assault in a caravan in Hernhill near Faversham on November 27, 2020. Post-mortem examinations revealed the youngster had 70 visible injuries, multiple broken bones and potential signs of smothering to his mouth and lips.
The 35-day trial at Maidstone Crown Court has heard from a wide range of witnesses including Hedges and Benham themselves, as well as family members, friends and medical experts.
Benham, of Highstreet Road, Hernhill, and Hedges, of Fillace Park, Yelverton, Devon, deny murder and an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a child. Following Alfie’s death, a number of experts were asked to examine his body to determine the extent of his injuries and the potential cause of them.
A skeletal survey conducted days after he had died revealed he had suffered fractures to his left and right forearms, his ribs, sternum, left leg, and the big toe on his right foot. A specialist later said there
were signs many of the fractures had occurred in the hours before Alfie’s death, with the cause of some “crushing in nature”.
Hedges and Benham are accused of murdering Alfie by subjecting the toddler to an “aggressive, violent” show of discipline.
As well as multiple visible injuries and broken bones, traces of cocaine were also found in his body, indicating he had been recently exposed to the Class A drug, which his mum and Benham admitted taking in the hours before he died.
The jury was earlier told she had recently split from Alfie's father, Sam Phillips, and was living with her son and new boyfriend in the back garden of Benham’s parents’ home in Hernhill.
On the evening of Friday, November 27, 2020, she and Benham were in his parents’ house with Alfie, where the toddler was said to have been looking well and without visible injuries by several of Benham’s relatives.
The youngster was taken back to the caravan at 7pm and was not seen again by anyone other than Benham and Hedges until about 11.30am the following morning.
It was during these hours it is alleged Alfie was murdered. The court was told that shortly before 11.30am on the Saturday Benham came to the main house with Alfie in his arms. The toddler was described as “blue and floppy” and was not breathing. Benham’s mother, Joan Benham, started performing CPR in the living room and his father, Mark Benham, called 999.
Paramedics arrived within 10 minutes but it was immediately apparent to them Alfie had been “dead for some time”, said the prosecutor.
Mrs Benham noticed a number of bruises to Alfie’s face she said had not been there the night before.
The jury retired on Monday afternoon to deliberate and had yet to return verdicts as the Gazette went to press yesterday (Wednesday).