Four-year-old died after 'deliberate and brutal abuse' » Local Government » 24dash.com

A four-year-old girl died after suffering "sustained, deliberate and brutal" abuse which left her with injuries equivalent to a major road traffic accident, a court heard today.

Mother Sharon Wright, 23, and her partner Peter McKenzie-Seaton, 22, appeared at Bradford Crown Court charged with the murder of Leticia Aalayah Wright.

Ambulance staff found the little girl at her home in Almondbury Bank, Huddersfield, late on the evening of Saturday November 18 last year.

She was lying naked on the living room floor covered in bruises, both old and new, and she was not breathing, the court heard.

In the months preceding the death the girl was seen standing as if in a "vigil" at her bedroom window.

The court heard that two neighbours were so concerned they rang the social services.

Two social workers from Kirklees Council visited the house and met with Leticia and her mother but days later her file was closed.

Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, said: "The cause of death was multiple injuries and they were mainly forceful blows to Leticia's head and to her abdomen.

"These injuries had been inflicted between two and three days before she died.

"She had suffered other injuries over a longer period than that.

"Whoever inflicted the fatal injuries, those to the head and to the abdomen must have intended at the very least to cause her really serious harm.

"It's not possible to say which of the two assaulted her bringing about her death but it's proper inference that they were in it together, that they both embarked on a joint enterprise to assault Leticia."

The court heard the two defendants, who each had a child from previous relationships, moved in together at the house in Huddersfield three months before Leticia's death.

Neighbours said the pair received few visitors, the windows were rarely opened and the curtains were invariably drawn.

Mr Campbell said: "There was little sign of the new-comers in the neighbourhood.

"The defendants clearly wanted to keep themselves to themselves.

"There was little evidence of a family life being lived beyond the closed door.

"One feature of that life was noticed by a number of neighbours - the amount of time that Leticia spent in her bedroom.

"She could be seen on most week days standing in front of the closed curtain of her window, looking out into the street below.

"She was seen there at morning, at lunchtime and in the late afternoon.

"It appeared to one of those neighbours that Leticia was still in her pyjamas.

"Sometimes she looked sad but she often responded to the waves of those who were passing below and she smiled."

Two neighbours contacted social services who discovered the girl was not registered with a local surgery or nursery.

On October 13 two social workers visited the house and Wright reluctantly showed them up to Leticia's room, the court heard.

The little girl was found lying in her dressing gown on a bottom bunk, without any cover or bedding.

Wright told the social workers she had wet the bed and the bedding was being washed.

Leticia was quiet at first but became "more lively", the court heard.

When asked to fetch her toys she came back with hair grabs and a pink cup.

Mr Campbell said: "As far as they could observe there were no marks on her.

"She was responding affectionately to her mother.

"She appeared to be of the appropriate size and weight for her age."

Leticia was registered at the nursery the following Monday.

After checking with the school that she had been registered the file on Leticia was closed, the court heard.

The social workers took Wright on her word that she had contacted the local surgery.

Leticia attended nursery for the next week but failed to turn up in the following weeks.

Wright told the nursery, who phoned to ask why her daughter was no longer attending, that Leticia was ill.

Mr Campbell said: "Neighbours had noticed a sudden change and that first week Leticia had been seen being walked to school by her mother, but after those few days they saw a return to earlier form, curtains shut.

"No one saw Leticia out of doors, rather she was soon back at her vigil at the bedroom window."

Leticia was last seen standing at the window on Thursday morning, two days before her mother phoned for an ambulance, the court heard.

Wright and McKenzie-Seaton both deny murder. They also deny an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a child.

The court heard Wright dialled 999 at 11.16pm on Saturday.

She told the operator her daughter had fallen and was not breathing.

At 11.22pm a paramedic arrived and discovered the girl lying naked on her back.

She already appeared "lifeless", the court heard.

Mr Campbell said: "He was drawn to the number of injuries on the child's body.

"There was a large swelling to the middle of her forehead, her left eye was bruised, and there were numerous bruises, old and new, all over her body.

"In particular his eye was drawn to a large bruise in the pubic area."

She was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary where doctors spent 40 minutes trying to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at 12.12am in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Doctors who examined the body noted swelling to the forehead, bruising to the left eye and an area at the back of her head which felt like a "boggy mass".

There were also sores and the signs of infection in her scalp.

When questioned Wright said her daughter had been "a little unwell" with diarrhoea and vomiting, the court heard.

She said she had bathed Leticia, wrapped her in a towel and taken her downstairs to watch television.

When she returned she found her lying on the floor.

She attributed a bruise on Leticia's leg to a fall in the garden.

Wright went to see her daughter's body but did not look at her face or ask about the injuries, the court heard.

"Sharon Wright did pull the cover back from one of the arms and touched her on the arm and after a short time she said that she wanted to leave," Mr Campbell said.

As she was going she kissed her daughter on the forehead.

Home Office pathologist Peter Vanezis recorded the cause of death as multiple injuries.

He "noted the presence of multiple bruises of different ages to all parts of Leticia's body," Mr Campbell said.

"Some were freshly inflicted within hours before death, but some could have been as much as two weeks old.

"Some of the fresh bruises lay over sites of earlier bruises."

He detailed extensive bruising to the face and head as well as internal "blunt force" injuries.

"The child could have been punched or kicked or just kicked," Mr Campbell said.

"There is evidence to suggest her coming into forceful contact with a firm surface, such as a wall or a floor."

The circular bruise in the pubic area, similar to a bruise on her right cheek, was consistent with a signet ring, the court heard.

Referring to the abdominal and head injuries, Mr Campbell said: "Such injuries as these are only associated with extreme trauma, the results of major road traffic accident or perhaps the fall from a great height.

"They are not the result of everyday falls in the household.

"These abdominal injuries would have been extremely painful and the pain would have continued from the infliction of the trauma to the time of the collapse."

Leticia also suffered a branding mark on the back of her left thigh, consistent with a cigarette lighter.

And there were two bite marks on her arms inflicted between two and four days prior to the death and later matched to McKenzie-Seaton, the court heard.

These injuries "together with the pulling and loss of hair" suggested "that what happened to Leticia was not the result of a sudden loss of control, rather what happened was sustained, deliberate and brutal," Mr Campbell said.

A forensic examination of the house found Leticia's blood on her clothes, the living room wall and a pair of fur-lined handcuffs retrieved from the kitchen, the court heard.

Clumps of the girls hair were found outside in the wheelie bin, along with 16 roach ends, consistent with the use of cannabis.

Wright was arrested at 4am on Sunday morning.

At first she denied living with McKenzie-Seaton, who was wanted for a breach of probation, but later admitted it.

She had not told the social workers or the hospital staff about him, the court heard.

She said her partner and her daughter were "like best friends" and he had never been violent.

She said she had noted some bruising but she hadn't been particularly concerned about it because Leticia was "generally a rough and tumble little girl".

"She failed to give any adequate account of Leticia's injuries," Mr Campbell said.

"She denied that either she or Peter McKenzie-Seaton had been responsible for the injuries."

McKenzie-Seaton was arrested a few days later in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, where he had grown up and where friends had been harbouring him, the court heard.

In interview he told police he had never hit the child but he had seen Wright occasionally smack her on her hands or bottom.

He said Leticia had bitten him when he put his finger down her throat to stop her choking on her bath water.

Wright had suggested he give her a bite in return to teach her that it was not right, the court heard.

Wright sat in the dock with her hair tied back, glancing from side to side, and occasionally welling with emotion.

McKenzie-Seaton, wearing a zip-up sweat-shirt, sat impassively as the details of the case were outlined.

Mr Justice Walker adjourned the case, which is listed for two to three weeks, until tomorrow.

Copyright Press Association 2007.

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