Kaylee-Jayde Priest: Alleged murderer denies hitting toddler
A Black Country man accused of murdering a three-year-old girl told police he had not hit the child and if he have had done something wrong he “would have left the country”.
Kaylee-Jayde Priest was found dead at the flat where she lived with her mother in Kingshurst, Solihull, on August 9 last year.
She died from serious chest and abdominal injuries and medical examinations revealed she had also suffered historical injuries including broken ribs, lower leg fractures and a broken sternum.
Callum Redfern, 21, of Temple Street, Dudley, and Nicola Priest, 22, of Poplar Avenue, Edgbaston, are both accused of Kaylee-Jade’s murder and a separate charge of manslaughter.
Redfern, who was in a relationship with Priest, was at the flat the evening before Kaylee-Jayde’s death.
At Birmingham Crown Court on Friday Detective Constable Nannett Kite assisted with the reading of an interview with Redfern recorded by police on September 25.
In it he said he said he did not know why Nicky [Priest] had said he killed Kaylee-Jayde and that he felt “disgusted” by the accusation.
Redfern said he had not lost his temper with Kaylee-Jayde, she was “not frightened of him and had always been happy”.
He denied smacking her and asked to see proof, adding that he was not lying and that “if he had done something wrong he would have left the country”.
Kaylee-Jayde had been sick twice the night before she died. Redfern denied making the child sick by striking her stomach.
When police asked about how Kaylee-Jayde was disciplined he said: “Nicky did not discipline Kaylee with a ‘time out approach’.
“Nicky would discipline with a smack on the legs.”
He questioned why Nicky [Priest] had not called an ambulance or the police if he was beating the child.
He said to the police officer: “Is that what you think? That she woke up and found her f***ing daughter dead?
“No – she had been up since 8am – she was on Facebook.”
Earlier in the hearing neuropathologist Dr Daniel du Plessis told Birmingham Crown Court that Kaylee-Jayde had suffered tears and swelling to her brain.
Defence barrister Gurdeep Garcha QC, for Redfern, said: “The position is you identified only one convincing traumatic injury to Kaylee’s brain – that is the tears in the corpus callosum (fibres connecting the left and right side of the brain).
“You told us there were two tears millimetres apart. Does the fact they are so close together mean that they originated from one action rather than two?"
“It is plausible that a single event could have accounted for both,” said Dr du Plessis.
“I think you said that the injury occurred more than two days before her death,” said Mr Garcha.
“Kaylee was last seen alive by an independent third party at about 7.30pm on Saturday August 8 – she was discovered at 11am on August 9.
“Your evidence suggests this injury would have occurred before the evening of Friday the 7th?”
“Almost certainly, yes” replied Dr du Plessis who explained that Kaylee-Jayde also suffered a loss of blood and oxygen to her brain.
Redfern and Priest deny Kaylee-Jade’s murder, a separate alternative charge of manslaughter and a charge of causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a child, between June 12 and August 3, 2020.
The trial continues.
