'Battered and bruised' Kemarni Watson Darby 'tried to escape from home before his death'
Kemarni Watson Darby had a black eye, bruises to his face, resorted to cutting his own hair and tried to escape his home in the weeks before his death, a court heard.
The boyfriend of the boy's mother admitted to police he regularly slept when in charge of the three-year-old, who sustained multiple injuries in his final weeks.
Alicia Watson, aged 23, of Raglan Road, Handsworth and her boyfriend Nathaniel Pope, 31, of Evans Street, Wolverhampton, both deny murder and multiple charges of child cruelty. Bodycam footage was shown in court from police officers who visited the home hours after Kemarni was rushed to hospital on June 5, 2018, where he died of massive internal bleeding.
The video showed the West Bromwich flat was cluttered and officers had to tell Pope to turn the television off multiple times to get his attention.
Pope was not distraught or worried about the boy’s condition. He said he was asleep when Alicia had returned from the school run and noticed Kemarni was unresponsive.
In the dock he did not make eye contact with Watson, who began rocking back and forth and wiping tears away from her face as she listened to transcripts of interviews between the police and Pope. Under caution Pope told police he often slept when in sole charge of Kemarni. When arrested for the boy’s murder Pope became “teary and trembled”. However, for his first two interviews he gave a short statement “vehemently denying he caused serious harm to Kemarni” before stonewalling detectives with “no comment”.
He also denied any drugs or paraphernalia in the Santon House flat was his and said he often spent time with his family in London. Detective Constable Victoria Hill, who is leading the investigation, took to the stand to read interviews with Pope at Perry Barr Custody Suite. Jurors were shown pictures of the little boy with a black eye and bruises on his face two weeks before his death. He was also shown cutting his own hair.
Pope said the facial injuries had happened when the boy “ran into a pram” and “ran into a door” and that his mother had found the boy outside the flat after he had escaped.
Watson’s defence team claim she was a loving mother who made the tragic mistake of leaving her son with Pope.
Both deny murder and child cruelty. The trial continues.
