Toddler complained 'my belly is falling down' before dying of internal bleeding, court told
Tragic Kemarni Watson Darby complained his "belly was falling down" hours before he died of massive internal bleeding, a court heard.
The three-year-old even refused his favourite food, McDonald's fries, on the day of his death during which he "shivered" due to not being able to eat because of his stomach pains.
Birmingham Crown Court heard the transcripts of detectives quizzing Kemarni's mother Alicia Watson, 23, the day after the toddler died after she found him unresponsive when she returned from the school run on June 5, 2018.
It is unknown whether Watson, or her boyfriend Nathaniel Pope, 31, who are accused of murdering Kemarni, will take the stand during the trial which is expected to last until late January. The interview transcripts offer a rare opportunity for jurors to hear the pair discuss the death of the child.
Detective Constable Victoria Hill, leading the investigation, reprised the interviews on the stand with a prosecutor reading Watson's responses to her questions.
Watson regularly broke down in tears during the interview and described how her boyfriend Pope "got on well" with Kemarni, her son by another man.
Yesterday, the court heard how she described Kemarni as "a ********* knob" in a voice note left on her phone but in her interviews she painted a picture of a loving mother desperate to find out what was wrong with her son.
She told them: "He was always the loudest, always talked about what he saw out the window of the bus, blah, blah, blah, but he just sat there quiet. He had not eaten for a couple of days and kept on being sick, so I took him to the doctors."
The court heard how Kemarni vomited in the surgery and his mother was told he might have had a virus. However, the boy was feeling the effects of internal bleeding, after his ribs had been fractured four times in the previous three weeks.
She left Kemarni in the care of Pope, who was asleep, when she went on the school run, and when she returned he was unresponsive.
She said: "I don't know what could have happened, there had not been a problem before."
With the advice of her older sister, Watson phoned 999. They were told to try to resuscitate Kemarni, and Pope tried to give mouth to mouth which caused the youngster to vomit.
Paramedics then arrived at the Stanton House, West Bromwich, and took over.
Watson told police: "I was holding his hand and was telling him 'mommy loves him' but they picked him up and took him to hospital and I followed him.
She said: "At the hospital they tried for two hours and then they said they would stop now, I went to the family room and broke a picture."
Watson, of Raglan Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, and her boyfriend, Pope, of Evans Street, Wolverhampton, both deny murder and multiple charges of child cruelty.
Watson’s defence team claim she was a loving mother who made the tragic mistake of leaving her son with Pope.
The trial continues.
