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Ayeeshia Jane Smith's mother found guilty of murdering toddler | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
A mother has been found guilty of murder after stamping to death her 21-month-old child at the family home. | |
Kathryn Smith, 23, was convicted of killing Ayeeshia Jane Smith at the flat where they lived in Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, on 1 May 2014. | |
Her former partner Matthew Rigby, 22, was earlier found guilty of causing or allowing her death, but cleared of murder at Birmingham crown court. | |
Ayeeshia, known as AJ, suffered a fatal collapse at the flat just over three weeks after Derbyshire social services had discussed taking the child into care because of concerns that she was a victim of domestic abuse, the court had heard. | Ayeeshia, known as AJ, suffered a fatal collapse at the flat just over three weeks after Derbyshire social services had discussed taking the child into care because of concerns that she was a victim of domestic abuse, the court had heard. |
The girl died from a fatal heart laceration most likely caused by a foot stamp and the sort of injury doctors only usually see in crash victims. | |
When the jury cleared Rigby of murder, he mouthed “thank you” but broke down in tears as they found him guilty on the lesser charge. | |
Meanwhile Smith wept uncontrollably in the dock, dabbing away the tears after the jury convicted her of cruelty. | |
Smith, of Sandfield Road, and Rigby, of Sloan Drive, both in Nottingham, had denied having anything to do with the child’s death throughout a six-week trial. | |
The girl’s mother claimed she had left Rigby alone with her daughter for “a couple of moments” when she went to get some juice, while in his evidence her ex-partner told jurors it “must have been her”. | |
Rigby and Smith had also been in a relationship right up until the start of the trial. Smith gave a silver-coloured locket containing the dead girl’s ashes to Rigby while at court and the pair were also seen embracing in a private room, off the court dock. | |
In evidence it emerged Ayeeshia had suffered what one medical expert told the jury was “a concerning pattern” of injuries including an historic brain bleed which went undiagnosed. | |
A serious case review has been launched by the Derbyshire safeguarding children board to look at health and social services’ involvement in the lead-up to the child’s collapse. | |
Twice after the couple began dating, the girl was taken to hospital, including one incident which a consultant paediatrician later described to the jury as “an apparent life-threatening incident” at a Swadlincote flat on February 3 2014. | |
Smith had been out shopping while Rigby said he was about to take a shower when he claimed to have heard a noise only to find Ayeeshia lying in her cot and turning blue. | |
She was diagnosed at hospital with a “febrile fit” linked to a high temperature and later allowed home, but a consultant paediatrician later told the jury there seemed little basis for such a conclusion. | |
The couple also gave opposing accounts in court of what happened on March 19 2014, when Ayeeshia ended up at Burton’s Queen’s Hospital with a badly cut lip following a fall in the bath. | |
Jurors heard how Smith had a history of troubled relationships with different men. Ayeeshia had been known to social services since birth and was taken into care for a period by social services in mid-2013, when Smith was dating another man. | |
Smith then began a relationship with former electrician Rigby, but the jury of five women and seven men also heard evidence of their turbulent relationship. | |
In January 2014, there were reports of domestic incidents between Smith and Rigby, and a child protection medical was carried out on Ayeeshia after cuts to her chin and lip were seen, and a bald patch appeared on her head. | |
No further concerns were raised however and the child went home with her mother. |