Eleanor Easey: Three-month-old baby suffered 'appalling catalogue' of injuries before death
A three-month-old baby girl was murdered by her father after suffering an "appalling catalogue of inflicted injuries", a court heard.
Christopher Easey told a 999 call handler his daughter Eleanor was struggling to breathe at their Norfolk home, and an ambulance crew arrived to find her "very pale, floppy, eyes half open", said prosecutors.
The child was taken to hospital, first in Norwich and then transferred to Cambridge but died two days later, on 20 December 2019, having sustained a major brain injury.
Mr Easey later told police he thought his daughter may have sustained the injuries in the car when he performed an emergency braking manoeuvre when another vehicle pulled out in front of him.
A post-mortem examination "demonstrated older head and neurological injuries", 31 rib fractures and five sites of fracture on her limbs, prosecutor Sally Howes QC told jurors on the first day of a murder trial at Norwich Crown Court.
"This baby died as a result of an inflicted, non-accidental injury," she said, adding that the examinations indicated "some form of shaking with an impact to the head".
"It's the prosecution case that she was murdered by her father Christopher Easey," she said.
"Her mother (Carly) is charged with allowing the death of a child in that she failed to protect this vulnerable young infant from foreseeable risk of serious physical harm."
Carly Easey, 36, and her husband, both of Old Roman Bank, Terrington St Clement, Norfolk, are both charged with cruelty to a child.
Ms Howes said Eleanor sustained "not only this appalling catalogue of inflicted injuries but was described... as being a poorly-nourished infant".
She said Eleanor had been "dangerously inappropriately fed".
Mother 'appeared to be in denial'
The court heard that Mr and Mrs Easey had met in 2016 on the dating website Muddy Matches, which is "used extensively by the farming and rural community".
At the time Mrs Easey was a yard assistant at a stables and Christopher Easey was a pig stockman, Ms Howes said, and they married in 2018. Mrs Easey miscarried that year.
She later became pregnant again but was "unwilling to acknowledge her condition and appeared to be in denial, though it must have been obvious to her she was indeed pregnant", Ms Howes said.
Eleanor was born on September 12, 2019 in hospital in King's Lynn, with Mr Easey taking his wife there. Mrs Easey "did say she did not feel ready for a baby", Ms Howes said.
She said the case was referred to safeguarding as a "concealed pregnancy", adding: "A concealed pregnancy is when a woman knows or suspects she is pregnant but doesn't inform any health professional."
Mrs Easey "appeared to be anxious about change with the demands of being a parent", said the prosecutor, and was treated in the intensive care unit after the birth.
Her husband "appeared to be somewhat delusional, telling one midwife he was a vet and comparing his job to hers", Ms Howes said.
Father blamed braking manoeuvre
Christopher Easey told police he thought Eleanor's injury arose from when he performed an emergency brake as he drove back from dropping his wife at work for a shift at a pub.
"He said a car pulled out in front of him which caused him to brake suddenly from 50mph down to 5mph," Ms Howes said.
"He heard a squeal from Eleanor. As soon as he was able to do so, he pulled over on the side of the road to check her. She seemed unharmed, he then drove straight home."<
He said he found Eleanor "slumped forwards in her bouncy chair" later that evening and called an ambulance, Ms Howes said.
A paramedic said cattle stockman Christopher Easey "talked throughout the journey (to hospital) about his job and how he had performed CPR on cows but not on a person... he might have been a bit heavy-handed doing CPR on the baby", Ms Howes said.
Carly Easey denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a child.
Christopher Easey denies murder and cruelty to a child.
The trial, which could last up to six weeks, continues.