Mother of murdered Kemarni tells jury she thought her arrest 'was just a massive mistake'
The traumatised mother of Kemarni Watson Darby relived the moment she was arrested for the murder of her child.
During a second day giving evidence, punctuated by frequent fits of tears, Alicia Watson told jurors at Birmingham Crown Court she was "convinced it was a big mistake".
Watson and then boyfriend Nathaniel Pope were arrested and questioned about Kemarni being murdered nine days after his death from massive internal injuries on June 5, 2018.
The 30-year-old said: "I was in handcuffs in the back of the [police] van, thinking it has to be a massive mistake - murder? My son?
"I was thinking it about both of us. I was in disbelief from what the police was telling me.
"I was thinking you guys have made a big mistake, my son was just sick."
She added: "I was terrified and in shock. I'd never been in a situation like this, before, ever, I heard what they were telling me, I could not take it in.
"I was thinking over and over it was a big mistake."
Detectives had told Watson of the shocking injuries the three-year-old had sustained in the weeks before his death which included 19 separate fractures of his ribs.
Watson told the jury she began to question Pope about Kemarni's death when they returned first to her father and then her mother's home together, as "he had nowhere else to go."
She said: "I just had the image of Kemarni having vomit in his mouth and he [Pope] told me he didn't do anything and I believed him."
Watson had told police in the interview "he has no label, its not like he's my boyfriend" but they continued a sexual relationship.
However, she ended the relationship with Pope in Spring 2019 after discovering he had synced her mobile phone without telling her.
When asked again by her defence barrister Charles Sherrard whether she and Pope had beaten Kemarni together as the prosecution allege she said: "Hell no."
Watson also admitted smoking cannabis on the morning of Kemarni's death. She will now face questioning from Pope's defence barrister.
Pope, 32, from Evans Street, Wolverhampton, and Watson, from Raglan Road, Handsworth, both deny murder and charges of child cruelty.
The trial continues.
