Grandparents ‘murdered “painfully thin” boy, 2, after he became object of abuse in family’s campaign of brutality’
A COUPLE murdered their toddler grandson after he became an “object of abuse” in a campaign of brutality, a court heard.
Ethan Ives-Griffiths suffered catastrophic head injuries at the home of Michael Ives and Kerry Ives in Deeside, North Wales.
Jurors heard the two-year-old was “painfully thin and vulnerable” at the time of his death.
Ethan had suffered a “thoroughly miserable” life and had was an “object of abuse and neglect” for gran Kerry and mum Shannon Kayleigh Ives.
Prosecutor Caroline Rees said: “He was shown vanishingly little care by Kerry and Shannon and experienced casual brutality.
“He would have experienced pain and misery in the weeks before he died. He was severely underweight and covered in bruises.”
Mold Crown Court was told Ethan died from fatal head injuries from a deliberate from blow and a forceful shaking injury.
This was the “culmination of emotional and physical abuse on him by people who should have cared for him most”, it was said.
At the time of the horror in August 2021, his mum Shannon, 27, was upstairs on her phone.
Ms Rees said: “So it was either Michael and/or Kerry who were responsible for the deliberate assault which led to Ethan’s death. Neither offered a plausible explanation.”
The court was told there was a “pact of silence” by “team of two” Michael, 46, and Kerry, 45, to conceal the truth.
Shannon meanwhile was “unconcerned” about her son’s plight, it was said.
Miss Rees said all three were to blame for the cruelty inflicted on Ethan in his short life.
She added: “Not one adult sought medical help. Michael and Kerry sought to deflect responsibility for what happened and blamed their daughter Shannon for Ethan’s ill-treatment and death.”
Michael and Kerry deny murder, assault and neglect, while Shannon has pleaded not guilty to causing or allowing a child to suffer serious physical harm.
The trial continues.