A COUPLE accused of the sickening murder of their own two-year-old grandson have been found guilty.
Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, have been found guilty of the sickening murder of their grandson at Mold Crown Court.
Michael Ives and Kerry Ives have been found guilty of the sickening murder of their grandson[/caption]
Ethan Ives-Griffiths was dangerously dehydrated and severely underweight, with 40 visible bruises or marks, when he collapsed with a catastrophic head injury at his grandparents’ home in Flintshire, North Wales, on the evening of August 14 2021.
Michael previously admitted being “cruel and neglectful to the toddler” in court.
A jury at Mold Crown Court convicted Michael Ives and grandmother Kerry Ives of Ethan’s murder and of cruelty to a child under 16.
Ethan’s mother Shannon Ives, 28, who had been staying with her son at her parents’ home in Garden City when the court heard he was “targeted for abuse and subjected to casual cruelty”, was found guilty of causing or allowing his death and of child cruelty.
Michael Ives, 47, denied he or his wife Kerry Ives, 46, inflicted a severe head injury on Ethan before he collapsed at their home.
Tragic Ethan had been staying with his grandparents at their home in Garden City with his mother Shannon Ives, 28.
After collapsing Ethan was raced to hospital but tragically passed away two days later.
The tot’s grandfather accepted in court that he neglected Ethan and that the way he carried him, by his upper arm, was cruel but denied mistreating the toddler in other ways.
Ethan was “dangerously thin” and “desperately dehydrated” while staying with his grandparents.
The court heard Ethan had been placed on the child protection register, requiring him to be seen every 10 days.
When Shannon Ives last saw her social worker, on August 5, she spoke to him on the doorstep and told him Ethan was having a nap.
Jurors were visibly upset at points during the five-and-a-half week trial, during which CCTV from the family home was played which showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm and appearing to punch him after putting him into a car seat.
Ethan was described as “dangerously dehydrated” after a stint at his grandparent’s home[/caption]
