Five-week-old Staffordshire baby suffered more than 40 rib fractures, parents’ murder trial told
A five-week-old baby died of a “catastrophic” brain injury after suffering 47 rib fractures during repeated assaults at the hands of her parents, a murder trial jury has heard.
Darcy-Leigh Jefferson also had fractures to both of her legs which were caused at different times during the 10 days before she died in March 2022, prosecutors allege.
Sean Jefferson, 35, and Amy Clarke, 34, both deny murdering Darcy-Leigh, and causing or allowing her death.
Opening the case against the pair on Friday, prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told Stafford Crown Court that Darcy-Leigh died on March 29 2022 after being taken to hospital.
The court heard Clarke was living at a “tidy and well-presented” address in Hudson Drive, Burntwood, Staffordshire, where she gave the impression of being a mother who was in control while hiding the fact she “drank a lot of alcohol and she took cocaine”.
Mr Sandhu told jurors: “Ladies and gentlemen, Darcy-Leigh Jefferson was born on February 20 2022.
“She was premature by five weeks and, as we shall learn, she was tiny. She weighed just over four pounds when she was born.
“She died, only five weeks later, on March 29 2022, after being taken into hospital two days earlier on March 27.
“She died because, on or around March 27, she had sustained a catastrophic brain injury. That happened because Darcy had been shaken violently or because her head had been struck against a surface.”
Mr Sandhu added that at the time the head injury was inflicted, Darcy-Leigh was in the care of her parents.
Explaining the charges the prosecution had brought, Mr Sandhu added: “One of her parents is, or both of her parents are, responsible for killing her.
“If only one of them is responsible for killing her, the other is, on the prosecution’s case, responsible for causing or allowing her death.
“Each of the defendants denies responsibility for their daughter’s death.”
Detailing injuries Darcy-Leigh is alleged to have suffered and claiming that the head injury was “not an isolated example” of physical abuse, Mr Sandhu said of Darcy-Leigh: “Throughout the five weeks of her short life, she was physically assaulted on a repeated basis.
“She was assaulted repeatedly by those who should have been caring for her, namely her parents.
“By the time she died, she had a total of 47 rib fractures. At least three separate incidents of physical abuse resulted in those 47 rib fractures being caused.
“Those rib fractures are likely to have been caused when her chest was squeezed. Three of those rib fractures were caused on at least one occasion in the first couple of weeks of her life.
“Thirty-three of those rib fractures were caused on at least one occasion between five and 10 days before she died.
“Eleven of those rib fractures were caused on at least another occasion between two and five days before she died.”
Mr Sandhu went on: “Those 47 rib fractures were not her only bony injuries. She had fractures to each of her legs. Those leg fractures were caused at different times.”
Jurors heard that the leg fractures were “likely to have been caused by either her legs being pulled or twisted or by her body being shaken”.
