The grandparents of a ‘painfully thin’ malnourished toddler have been found guilty of his murder while the boy’s mother was upstairs.
Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, have been found guilty at Mold Crown Court of the murder of their two-year-old grandson Ethan Ives-Griffiths.
Little Ethan suffered a severe head injury before he collapsed at home in Flintshire, North Wales, on August 14, 2021.
The toddler, who had been staying at his grandparents’ house in Garden City with his mother Shannon Ives, 28, died in hospital two days later, having suffered catastrophic head injuries.
Ethan was so ‘desperately dehydrated’ that medical experts said he would have died in a short time even if he had not suffered a brain injury.
A trial at Mold Crown Court, lasting more than five weeks, heard the boy was also severely underweight when he died, with 40 visible bruises or marks on his body.
Michael and Kerry Ives had denied the murder of Ethan, but a jury took just one day to deliberate before finding the pair guilty.
The couple had also pleaded not guilty to an alternative count of causing or allowing his death and cruelty to a child under the age of 16, and were convicted on the latter charge.
Ethan Ives-Griffiths (pictured) was extremely malnourished before his murder
Kerry Ives, 46, has been found guilty of the murder of her grandson after a five week trial
Michael Ives, 47, has also been convicted of murder over the boy’s death, with distressing footage appearing to show him punch Ethan and spray a hose at him shown in court
Ethan’s mother Shannon, of Rhes-y-Cae, near Holywell, was found guilty of causing or allowing his death and child cruelty.
Jurors were visibly upset at points during the five-and-a-half week trial, during which CCTV from the family home was played which showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm and appearing to punch him after putting him into a car seat.
The court heard Ethan had been placed on the child protection register, requiring him to be seen every 10 days, but when Shannon Ives last saw her social worker, on August 5, she spoke to him on the doorstep and told him Ethan was having a nap.
Nobody answered the door when social worker Michael Cornish went to visit in the days before Ethan’s death and a scheduled appointment with a health visitor on August 13 was cancelled.
Shannon Ives had fled domestic violence from her home in Mold in June that year, the jury was told.
Her parents accused her of hitting her son, with Michael Ives telling the jury his daughter was ‘quick-tempered’ and would slap Ethan a couple of times a day.
But Shannon Ives told the court her parents were ‘horrible’ and abused her as a child.
The toddler had been staying at his grandparents’ house in Garden City with his mother Shannon Ives (pictured)
CCTV footage from August 4 showed Michael Ives (pictured) carrying his grandson by the top of his arm in a way which Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, described as ‘as though Ethan was just a bag of rubbish to be slung out’
Kerry Ives (pictured) waited 18 minutes after Ethan’s collapse to call an ambulance
The court heard that Ethan (pictured) would have died from dehydration within ten days if he had not succumbed to his injuries
The court heard Ethan was made to stand with his hands on his head as a punishment when he misbehaved.
CCTV footage from August 4 showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm in a way which Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, described as ‘as though Ethan was just a bag of rubbish to be slung out’.
The video, taken from the back garden of the family’s four-bedroom home, showed Ethan appearing unsteady on the trampoline, or lying down, while other children bounced and appeared to show Michael Ives point the garden hose at him, place the toddler’s hands on his head and gesture to another child to punch Ethan.
After watching the video in court, Michael Ives said he felt ‘ashamed’ and admitted being cruel and neglectful of the toddler, but denied mistreating him in other ways.
The cameras did not show Ethan leave the house after August 4 until August 12, when Michael Ives was seen again carrying him by the upper arm, putting him into a car seat and appearing to punch towards the youngster.
When Ethan was examined by doctors after his death, he was found to have abdominal injuries likely to have been caused by blows in the days before his collapse.
Other injuries included bruises which were consistent with grip marks on his leg and face.
Experts said Ethan would have died of dehydration within days had he not suffered the head injury and at the time of his death weighed just 10kg, the court was told.
Asked if he noticed Ethan was ‘dangerously thin’, Ives said he mentioned it to Shannon a couple of weeks before the boy’s death.
He told the court: ‘She was going to try and get him a doctor’s appointment.’
The jury heard medical evidence that Ethan’s fatal head injury was caused by deliberate force or shaking and occurred at the time, or in the minutes before, he collapsed on the evening of Saturday, August 14 2021.
Medical evidence pointed to the fact that something ‘horrific’ happened just before the collapse, the trial was told.
Michael and Kerry Ives, originally from Wolverhampton, were in the living room with Ethan at the time of his collapse while his mother was on the phone upstairs.
Both told the jury ‘nothing’ had happened to the toddler before he fainted as they watched television.
Kerry Ives said she immediately called Shannon Ives to come downstairs, but the court heard it was 18 minutes before she called emergency services.
Ethan was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital and later transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where he died two days later.
