The alleged North Wales Paedophile Child Killers, Michael Ives and Kerry Ives, killed a two-year-old boy who was registered under child protection a month prior, a court was informed today.
Ethan Ives-Griffiths was characterised as ‘severely underweight and covered in bruises’ upon being discovered injured at the family residence on August 16, 2021.
A small child was transported from his grandparents’ residence in Garden City, North Wales, to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool, where he succumbed to ‘catastrophic’ head injuries.
Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, are currently on trial facing charges of murder, causing or permitting the death of a child, and child maltreatment, all of which the Ives child killer family refute.
The prosecution asserted that Ethan’s mother, Shannon Ives, 28, was not present in the room and hence not accountable for the fatal injuries, despite accusations against her. [ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS]
Ms. Kerry Ives, 28, faces charges of causing or permitting the death of a child and child cruelty. She likewise refutes the allegations.
Today, jurors at Mould Crown Court were informed that communications had occurred between Ethan’s mother and social workers in the weeks leading up to his demise.
Ms. Shannon Ives was notified by a Flintshire social worker that Ethan required assessment every ten days due to his registration on July 6.
Jurors were presented with CCTV footage depicting a social worker’s visit to the residence on August 5, 2021.
In evidence, DC Lee Harshey-Jones of North Wales Police’s major incident team outlined phone messages between the Ives family.
He told the jury that in one Shannon Ives had complained her son ‘just won’t listen, as usual.’
DC Harshey-Jones was also questioned by the prosecutor about a text allegedly from Shannon Ives to a health visitor on August 13, 2021, claiming Ethan was ‘really poorly, I can’t leave him.’
After this text, CCTV at the family home showed him placed in a car seat. The car was then seen at a retail park.
The jury heard details of text messages sent by members of the Ives family to each other. In one, Kerry Ives claimed they had been called ‘child beaters’.
Kerry Ives also wrote in a message: ‘I used to get hit every day by my mum and dad.’
The jury were also shown footage of the toddler’s brothers being allowed to hit him on the head while his grandfather watched.
It also showed another brother put his foot on the two-year-old’s head while they were on a trampoline and Mr Michael Ives turn a hosepipe on him for eight seconds as he lay face down on the trampoline.
Opening the case last week, prosecuting KC Caroline Rees told the jury that Ethan was two years and three months old when he died in a Liverpool hospital on August 16, 2021.
He was described as a quiet boy and, as a result of neglect and ongoing child abuse, ‘painfully thin.’
The youngster’s time at his grandparents’ home was ‘thoroughly miserable,’ the KC alleged. ‘He was targeted by Michael Ives and Kerry Ives as an object of abuse and neglect.’
Ethan had collapsed at the family home on the night of August 14, 2021. The grandparents were in the room, the jury heard.
A post-mortem examination showed Ethan had 40 different injuries on his body, including a swollen brain and numerous trauma injuries to his head and abdomen, the court heard.
There were cuts, grazes and bruises, the prosecution said. Another doctor felt the combination of injuries was consistent with ‘shaken baby syndrome.’
A CT scan showed a significant bleed on the brain, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor alleged Ethan was ‘shown vanishingly little care by Kerry Ives and Shannon Ives and experienced casual brutality’.
The trial judge Mr Justice Griffiths told the jury: ‘You must keep an open mind until the very end of the case.’
Michael Ives and Kerry Ives deny all the charges and the trial continues.
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