Pair 'neglected, abused and murdered boy'

A couple "neglected, abused and beat" a three-year-old boy before murdering him at a flat in Wolverhampton at Christmas, a court heard.

Christopher Taylor, aged 25, and Kayley Boleyn, 19, had been given the care of Ryan Lovell-Hancox by his mother Amy Hancox just weeks earlier because she could not cope, it was said.

Ryan's mother was meant to visit the flat in Slim Avenue, Bradley, on a daily basis, but often went two or three days without seeing him, it was alleged.

When Ryan was brought to see her by the couple on December 20 2008, he was "clingy" towards his mother as they parted, the prosecution said.

On previous occasions, "things had happened which ought to have given her cause for concern,", Mr Christopher Hotten QC said.

Taylor and Boleyn were both said to have shouted at Ryan and made him sit on a bed facing the wall as punishment.

Amy Hancox also spotted a bruise on one of the child's ears that Boleyn said was caused when he fell over.

Two days later, Ryan was taken from the ground floor studio flat to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton before being transferred later to Birmingham Children's Hospital where his life support machine was switched off on Christmas Eve.

Shortly after the December 20 visit, Amy Hancox went to the Slim Avenue flat where Boleyn should have lived alone with neither her boyfriend Taylor nor a child because of the rules of the tenancy.

There was a note on the door in Boleyn's handwriting that claimed that she had had to take Ryan away.

But, Mr Hotten said: "In fact, Boleyn and Taylor were in the flat but did not want Amy to see her son for fear of what she may see or do when she saw his injuries.

"She went away never to see her son in health again."

Mr Hotten concluded: "Children, in particular babies and toddlers must be loved, not abused. Loved, not beaten. Nurtured not neglected. But we say Ryan was neglected, abused and beaten."

The trial judge, Mrs Justice Macur, warned the jury: "This is a case of high emotion and you must not allow feelings of revulsion to affect you.

"You must be cool, dispassionate and, above all, entirely fair when exercising your judgment."

Taylor and Boleyn, of Slim Avenue, Bradley, Bilston, both deny the murder of Ryan on December 24, 2008 and cruelty to the child between November 1 and December 24 2008.

Taylor further pleads not guilty to causing or allowing the death of the boy.

The trial is expected to last four weeks.