Jessica Dalgleish: Man jailed over 'catastrophic' head injuries to 3-year-old who wouldn't eat lunch

A man who inflicted catastrophic head injuries on a three-year-old child for failing to eat all of her lunch, has been jailed for 11 years for her manslaughter.

Jessica Dalgleish was in the care of Paul Marsh at her home in Sandgate, near Folkestone, Kent, when she suffered head injuries.

She was flown to a London hospital, but died three days later on Christmas Eve, 2019.

Marsh had claimed the toddler had fallen down stairs and hit her head, but investigators found her injuries were more consistent with being thrown against a hard surface.

Marsh was charged with manslaughter and child cruelty, and was convicted in November following a trial.

Marsh had been left with Jessica on the afternoon of December 21, 2019, but phoned emergency services at 3.10pm saying he had found her on the floor and she seemed dazed.

Paramedics attended and quickly realised that Jessica had suffered serious head injuries.

They arranged for an air ambulance to fly her to specialist care in London, but she died in hospital on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, 2019.

Marsh claimed Jessica had fallen down the stairs while playing.

However his account of what exactly had happened was unclear, prompting an The Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate to launch an investigation,

Medical experts found Jessica's injuries were inconsistent with falling down the stairs and were more likely to have been caused by an impact, such as being thrown against the headboard or side of her bed.

Detectives also discovered that Jessica had been seen with bruising to her face and head around a week before the incident, suggesting Marsh had assaulted her on previous occasions, before the attack which led to her death.

These were not reported to police at the time.

Witness evidence showed Marsh had become increasingly angry and frustrated at looking after her in the weeks before her death and had inflicted the fatal injuries on her after she failed to eat all of her lunch. 

On Monday, Marsh was sentenced to 11 years behind bars at a hearing at Maidstone Crown Court.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kimber, Senior Investigating Officer for the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "This is a tragic case in which a young girl has been robbed of her life before it had really begun.

Marsh was reluctant to get medical attention for Jessica on the day he inflicted these injuries and he has since sought to evade justice by changing his account and lying about what actually happened on that day.

"A meticulous investigation by my team, including sensitive interviewing of a number of witnesses and careful analysis of complicated medical evidence, has led to Marsh being found guilty of manslaughter.

"I hope the jury's verdicts and the sentence handed down today give Jessica's relatives some sense of closure as they continue to mourn her tragic death."