Mother denies hitting toddler who died from head injury

A mother whose two-year-old son died after suffering a catastrophic head injury has denied hitting the toddler.

Ethan Ives-Griffiths was severely underweight and dehydrated, with 40 visible injuries on his body, when he collapsed at his grandparents’ home in Flintshire, North Wales, on August 14 2021, a trial at Mold Crown Court has heard.

His grandparents Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, deny murdering the boy, who died in hospital two days later, and his mother Shannon Ives, 28, denies causing or allowing his death.

Giving evidence on Monday, Shannon Ives became visibly upset when she was asked by David Elias KC, defending her father, whether she had ever hit Ethan.

Reports

She said: “Either a tap on the hand or a tap on the bum, that was it.”

She was asked why she had not mentioned that she had seen her father shake Ethan on the day of his collapse until she was interviewed by police almost a year later.

She said: “I was told about what the doctors had said in their reports.”

The jury has heard medical evidence that Ethan’s fatal head injury was caused by deliberate use of force, which may have included an element of forceful shaking, and happened within minutes of his collapse.

Blame

Mr Elias said: “Were you just trying to blame whoever you could and not you?”

Ives replied: “No, cause I’d never shaken him.”

Mr Elias said: “You’re making up the shaking entirely?”

Ives replied: “No, I’m not.”

Asked why it took her a year to tell police, she said: “My head was a mess, my son was dead.”

Mr Elias said: “You were the one who hit Ethan, weren’t you?”

Ives said: “No, I didn’t.”

Michael and Kerry Ives, of Kingsley Road, Garden City, deny murder, an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a person under 16.

Shannon Ives, of Rhes-y-Cae, near Holywell, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a person under 16.