Baby Elsie killed by blunt head injury, pathologist tells court
AN 18-MONTH-OLD girl allegedly murdered by her adoptive father died as a result of blunt head injury and a fractured skull, a pathologist has said.
Elsie Scully-Hicks was formally adopted by Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, and his husband Craig ScullyHicks, 36, two weeks before she died in May 2016.
Matthew Scully-Hicks from Delabole, Cornwall, is accused of inflicting serious injuries on the toddler at the couple’s home in Llandaff, Cardiff, on May 25. He denies murder.
Yesterday, the part-time fitness instructor’s trial at Cardiff Crown Court heard how Elsie was rushed to University Hospital of Wales after Scully-Hicks dialled 999 reporting Elsie was unresponsive at around 6.20pm.
She died in the early hours of May 29.
Pathologist Dr Stephen Leadbeatter carried out the post-mortem examination and said he concluded Elsie died from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain following cardiac arrest “in a child with acute and chronic subdural haemorrhage”, or bleeding on the brain.
Dr Leadbeatter said the cardiac arrest was caused by a blunt head injury including a fracture of the right lambdoid suture – a join in the skull bones.
Examination of Elsie’s ribs revealed evidence Dr Leadbeatter said was “suggestive of a healing microfracture”.
He said there were no external injuries apart from a small fading bruise above Elsie’s left eye.
Dr Leadbeatter said he had not heard of any explanation given by Scully-Hicks which would explain how Elsie’s skull was fractured and why there was bleeding in her eyes.
Consultant paediatric radiologist Dr Sarah Harrison was asked to look at X-rays of Elsie’s chest and abdomen after she was hospitalised on May 25 and examined a full skeletal survey carried out after she died.
She told the jury the survey was X-rays of all the bones in the body and showed “no abnormality to support evidence of any underlying bone disease that would make her (Elsie) more likely to suffer a fracture than the next child and there was no evidence of fracture either”.
Dr Harrison said she noticed a “small line” on an X-ray of Elsie’s skull which she believed was an accessory suture – a normal variation in the pattern of joins between skull bones.
Prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said two pathologists including Dr Leadbeatter had since examined Elsie’s skull and they did find a fracture.
Mr Lewis asked if Dr Harrison was surprised she had not seen it on the X-ray.
“No I am not surprised,” said Dr Harrison. “The thing we were looking at was very small and it is difficult to be 100% certain of things when they are quite small.
“It is well recognised that even when there is a larger fracture we can miss them.”
Dr Harrison told jurors she also reexamined an X-ray taken of Elsie’s leg on November 12, 2015, when she was taken to hospital having suffered a leg injury a week earlier.
The court previously heard Elsie was found to have fractured her leg above her right ankle and was placed in a full-leg cast which she wore for three weeks.
Dr Harrison said she found not one fracture but two during her review of the images; the lower leg fracture and a second fracture in Elsie’s right femur, just above the knee.
She said they were not “toddler’s fractures”, such as might be suffered by a child learning to walk, and were more likely to have been caused by a child running and falling with more force.
Mr Lewis said: “As far as we are aware the child could not run.”
Dr Harrison said: “It is very unusual to see two fractures in adjacent bones... without evidence of significant trauma... I have never seen fractures of both bones like that in a child of this age.”
Robert O’Sullivan QC, defending Scully-Hicks, asked if the fractures could have been caused by Elsie falling and twisting her right leg while pushing a walker.
Dr Harrison said she would expect the injuries to have been caused by a “significant amount of trauma” but said if the foot was held “perhaps between two objects and then the child twists and falls that fracture could be seen”.
Scully-Hicks is also accused of describing Elsie as “a psycho” and “Satan dressed up in a Babygro” in messages to his husband and friends.
Elsie, who was removed from her natural mother within days of her birth in November 2014, went to live with the couple in September 2015.
She fractured her right leg in November that year and suffered bruises to her head in December and January 2016.
On March 10 she was taken to the University Hospital of Wales after falling down the stairs.
Scully-Hicks denies murder and the trial continues.