GUILTY: Wolverhampton parents 'caused or allowed' multiple fractures to their 11-week-old son
The parents of a baby found with fractures to four ribs and an arm have been found guilty of causing or allowing the injuries to be inflicted.
The boy was taken to hospital aged 11 weeks in August 2015 after a social worker visited the family’s home in Merridale Street West, Wolverhampton, and saw he was not moving his right arm.
At hospital it was uncovered he had a fracture to his right humerus, four fractured ribs and other healing fractures.
A reviewing consultant told the jury in his parent’s trial the boy is likely to have had his arm ‘forcibly bent or twisted’ and have been squeezed with ‘significant force’.
The jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts on Thursday on the charges against the boy’s father, 20-year-old Luke Davis, and his mother, Cylyna Fedynych, 19.
Both Davis, of Merridale Street, Wolverhampton, and Fedynych, of Cannock Road, also in the city, will be sentenced on June 2, until when they have been granted bail.
Fedynych wailed as she left the dock following the guilty verdicts while Davis remained quiet.
Judge James Burbidge QC said he did not know what sentence the pair would be given but added the offence they committed was ‘serious’.
At the start of the trial, Miss Sally Hancox, prosecuting, said the injuries had been categorised as ‘non-accidental’ by doctors.
She added they had not been explained by the boy’s parents ‘to any acceptable level’.
The couple, aged 19 and 18 at the time of the offences, had told the social worker that Fedynych had tumbled down stairs with the boy in her arms around a week before her visit.
Miss Hancox said both defendants told police officers this when interviewed, adding that the boy had remained on his mother’s chest during the fall and had not appeared to be injured.
Dr Joanna Fairhurst, the paediatric consultant called in by West Midlands Police to assess the child’s injuries, revealed he had suffered fractures to his ribs on at least two separate occasions.
She added: “The force required is very significant, not just a gentle squeeze.”
“It would have been more than rough handling of the child.”
The jury also heard evidence from social worker Lisa Tunney who first noticed the baby was hurt.
She said Fedynych had a ‘meltdown’ when an ambulance was requested to attend the family home.
“Immediately after I noted something was wrong Cylyna said ‘I fell down stairs, I fell down stairs,” she added.
The boy who suffered the injuries has since been adopted.
