Doncaster man found guilty of murdering two-year-old step-son

A mother and step-father have been found guilty in connection with the death of two-year-old boy from Doncaster.Sarah O’Brien, 33, and Martin Currie, 36 have been on trial since 6 October, after being charged with the murder of Keigan O’Brien.Today (Tuesday 10 November) after three days of deliberation, the jury found Currie guilty of murder and child neglect and O’Brien guilty of allowing or permitting the death of a child and child neglect.

They will appear before Sheffield Crown Court later this week to be sentenced.

The five-week trial at Sheffied Crown Court heard how at 11am on Wednesday 8 January, emergency services were called to Keigan’s home in Adwick –Le-Street, Doncaster after Keigan was found unconscious and not breathing.Police officers arrived on scene and commenced CPR until the ambulance arrived a few minutes later. Paramedics resuscitated Keigan and transported him to hospital where, on Thursday 9 January he died.

Tests showed that Keigan died from a severe head injury.A medical report provided as evidence during the trial showed that Keigan suffered a bleed on the brain. Keigan was also found to have a fractured arm sustained around the same time as the head injury, which caused his death.The report also described how Keigan had a fractured spine, suspected to have been caused between 6-16 weeks before his death, fractured ribs, which were fractured 2-4 weeks before his death and previous bleeding on the brain, caused ‘weeks to months’ before his death.Medical evidence also described the force sustained to Keigan’s head would have been consistent with the force associated with examples of crush injuries to the skull, falls from height and in road traffic collisions.