Man murdered partner’s three-year-old son after weeks of ‘horrendous’ cruelty
dailyrecord.co.ukA man has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend’s toddler after a horrific campaign of sustained abuse. Kemarni Watson Darby, 3, died from abdominal injuries after being violently attacked by 32-year-old Nathaniel Pope.
This week a court heard the defenceless child suffered weeks of ‘horrendous’ abuse in his short and tragic life. Pope caused more than 20 rib fractures on the boy, including some which used force similar to a car crash.
The child also had 34 separate areas of external injuries, report Mirror Online. Pope, a convicted drug dealer, was found unanimously guilty and Kemarni’s mother, 30-year-old Alicia Watson, was cleared of murdering her son but convicted of causing or allowing the child’s death.
During the four-month trial it was heard how Watson and Pope were “partners in crime” and continued to live together for several months after Kemarni’s death.However, at Birmingham Crown Court, the pair, from West Bromwich, blamed each other from the witness box for the death of the baby Kemarni.The youngster died on the afternoon of June 5, 2018, after his ribcage was “crushed” at the couple’s two-bedroom flat.Pope, from Wolverhampton, and Watson, from Handsworth, Birmingham, were also convicted of a single court each of child cruelty to Kemarni between May 1 and June 5 2018, relating to the infliction of rib fractures and an abdominal injury prior to the fatal injury.During the trial, prosecutors said Kemarni’s injuries would have required force similar to that caused by a road traffic collision or being stamped on with a ‘shod foot’.
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