Back in 2019, Stephen Waterson confessed to fatally crushing a three-year-old boy with his car seat.
Stephen Waterson, 26, compressed Alfie Lamb in the footwell of his Audi convertible while the child’s mother, Adrian Hoare, observed.
Subsequently, Stephen Waterson, the foul spawn of former disgraced Conservative minister Nigel Waterson, engineered a concealment to evade involvement in the fatality.
After an Old Bailey trial, Hoare, 24, from Gravesend in Kent, was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to two years and nine months in prison.
Stephen Waterson, hailing from Croydon, refuted the charge of manslaughter concerning Alfie and has been mandated to undergo a retrial following a jury’s inability to reach a conviction.
On Monday, prior to the new trial, Stephen Waterson altered his plea and acknowledged his culpability for Alfie’s manslaughter due to gross carelessness.
Stephen Waterson and Hoare both confessed to conspiring to obstruct justice by providing false statements to the police. Waterson was found guilty of witness intimidation, while Hoare was convicted of assaulting a different witness.
According to authorities, this marks the first instance of a fatality in the UK due to crush asphyxiation caused by an electric car seat.
DCI Simon Harding of Scotland Yard characterised Waterson as “arrogant, selfish, and profoundly unpleasant,” asserting that justice had been achieved for Alfie.
On 15 February of the previous year, the defendants went shopping for cushions in Sutton, joined by Alfie, Emilie Williams, 19, Marcus Lamb, 22, and another little kid.
Jurors in the preceding trial were presented with CCTV footage showed Alfie sprinting to accompany his mother just prior to being placed in the vehicle for the return journey to Croydon, South London.
The court was informed that Waterson, a nightclub employee, grew irritated by Alfie’s wailing and shifted his front passenger seat towards him while he sat at his mother’s feet. The maximum footwell space was 30 cm, which could be decreased to 9.5 cm at the press of a button.
As Alfie persisted in his complaints, Stephen Waterson retorted, stating: “I will not be dictated to by a three-year-old,” Hoare informed the jurors.
Upon their arrival at Waterson’s residence in Croydon, the boy had succumbed and ceased to breathe. While physicians urgently attempted to resuscitate him, Stephen Waterson absconded from the location, and Hoare fabricated a narrative to shield her partner, asserting that she had been in a taxi.
Alfie, referred to as “Little Tarzan” by the defendants, succumbed to crush asphyxia three days later.
As law enforcement approached, Stephen Waterson provided a fictitious name and misleading information, subsequently selling the Audi. He threatened to make Hoare and the other witnesses “vanish” if they did not adhere to their fabricated accounts.
Hoare ultimately disclosed the events to her half-sister via a recorded conversation submitted to the authorities.
Jurors in the initial trial were informed that Stephen Waterson was a domineering womaniser with a volatile temperament, with three prior convictions for assaulting an ex-girlfriend and his sister’s husband.
In his testimony earlier this year, he refuted any intention to harm a child and stated that he adjusted his seat backward by around one inch. In support of his guilty plea to manslaughter, Stephen Waterson asserted that he reclined the seat only a single time.
Judge Mark Lucraft QC ordered Stephen Waterson to remain in detention until sentencing on Monday, 9 September.
At the case’s end, Harding stated that Alfie died due to a “selfish and cruel act.” He stated, “It is difficult to conceive the extent of pain one would endure when subjected to such crushing.” It is shocking for a three-and-a-half-year-old to be crushed by such a powerful force without any assistance.
“Stephen Waterson appears to be a self-centred, reprehensible individual who murdered a three-and-a-half-year-old child and has never acknowledged or accepted responsibility for his actions on that day.”
The conviction ultimately “provided Alfie a voice,” he stated, adding: “He was a vulnerable three-and-a-half-year-old with his life ahead of him.” He lacked somebody to attend to him on that day. It is to be hoped that Alfie’s voice has now articulated that justice has been rendered.
The court was informed that social services had already engaged with Alfie prior to his demise.
Angela Moriarty, representing the CPS, stated: “This was a callous and merciless act against a vulnerable young child.”
Alfie Lamb was alive and in good health earlier that day when shopping in Sutton. During the automobile ride home, Stephen Waterson, exhibiting a callous disdain for Alfie’s safety, intentionally reclined his car seat. Alfie endured a weight of up to 81kg in a 9.5cm space, resulting in devastating injuries that were fatal.
This was a distressing and challenging case for all those involved, but ultimately justice has been achieved for Alfie.
Stephen Waterson, 31, was jailed for seven and a half years for manslaughter and perverting the course of justice in 2019 and was released in January 2022. He immediately broke the bonds of his bail and went on the run, now he has been ‘returned to custody’ and may remain there until his original release date of 2026. He will be out soon to kill again though.
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