Mum and dad guilty of 'causing or allowing' baby son's brain injury

A mum and dad have been found guilty of causing or allowing serious physical harm to their baby son after he suffered a bleed on the brain. 

Jordan Carrie was accused of shaking the boy at his girlfriend Keeleigh Watts' home in Rednal, Birmingham, in June 2020.

A trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard how people were concerned over Carrie's handling of the baby and that he had referred to him as a 'sp**, r****d and t***' on one occasion.

A jury was also told Watts, 23, was 'scared' of her boyfriend, who she claimed had hit her in the stomach with a bat while she was pregnant. 

'Blood around his spinal column and in his eyes'

The pair were found both guilty of a single count of causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child. 

The pair had been in a relationship for a couple of months before Watts fell pregnant. Watts lived at her mother's home at Roseleigh Road, Rednal, where Carrie stayed two nights a week and slept in a bunk bed with her. 

Their baby suffered serious injuries on the morning of 13 June 2020, up until which he had been 'healthy' and 'developing normally'.Prosecutor Jennifer Knight KC said: "Sometime before 9:50am, he became seriously ill. He was having difficulty breathing, appeared very pale and very floppy. An ambulance was called.

"He was taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital where he had an MRI scan. It revealed there was bleeding across the surface of his brain and within the spaces of his brain."The infant also had a lot of blood around his spinal column and in his eyes, the court heard. Experts concluded he had suffered a deliberate injury to his head which in their view had been caused by him being shaken.

At one stage Watts' mother, who 'gave her daughter a lot of support', warned her not to leave the child alone with Carrie, the court had heard. A neighbour also claimed to have seen him throwing the baby up into the air and catching him in the garden multiple times.Ms Knight said: "What people noticed was that Jordan Carrie had a heavy-handed approach." 

The morning of the injury

On the morning in question, the defendants alerted Watts' grandfather, who also lived at the home, that their baby was floppy. They asked their neighbour for help and an ambulance was called.The couple were subsequently arrested at the children's hospital later that day. Watts initially told police that Carrie was 'attentive' and their relationship was 'good'. 

She claimed her son fell ill while she was in the kitchen washing bottles and she heard him 'screaming' in the living room.But Watts changed her account to match Carrie, who claimed they had been in the kitchen together.

In a later police interview, she changed her version of events claiming her partner was 'aggressive' and had punched and kicked her as well as struck her in the stomach with a bat while she was pregnant.

Watts went on to say she was 'scared' of Carrie, who 'had outbursts every few weeks and told her he would take their baby away if she did not stay with him', the court heard. She told officers on the morning of 13 June she had actually been upstairs when Carrie called her on the phone to say 'something was wrong' with their baby.

Watts claimed Carrie had told her to go back to bed earlier that morning adding she felt 'hesitant' at leaving her son with him but he reassured her it would fine.Based on their accounts the prosecution stated it was 'likely' Carrie inflicted the injuries to the boy and that Watts 'failed to take reasonable steps to protect her son' given her supposed concerns.

Carrie, of Coventry Road, Yardley, and Watts, of Greenvale, Northfield, will be sentenced on 28 March.

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