North Wales PoliceA couple accused of murdering their two-year-old grandson, who died from a catastrophic brain injury, treated him with “casual brutality”, a court has heard.
Ethan Ives Griffiths was discovered “severely underweight, covered in bruises”, after he was allegedly murdered by his grandparents, Michael and Kerry Ives in Garden City, Flintshire, on 16 August 2021.
Mr Ives, 46, and Mrs Ives, 45, are charged with murder, causing or allowing the death of a child, and cruelty to a child – which they deny.
At their trial at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday, the prosecutor said the other children had been encouraged to mistreat Ethan as “play”.
Ethan’s mother, Shannon Ives, 28, of Mold, Flintshire, is charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, and cruelty to a child. She also denied the charges.
The court heard Ethan, his mother Shannon, and some of her other children were living with her parents in the summer of 2021.
Opening the prosecution’s case, Caroline Rees KC said: “[Ethan] was quiet and withdrawn, small and painfully thin”, by the time of his death.
He was targeted as an object of “abuse and neglect,” and in the run-up to his death, experienced “distress, pain and misery”.
He collapsed on 14 August, 2021 after a “forceful attack” by those that should have cared for him most, the jury was told.
The prosecution said Mr and Mrs Ives were the only ones with him when he was assaulted, and his mother Shannon was upstairs on her phone.
His mother is not charged with murder, but the prosecution claimed she was aware he was at risk, and “did nothing to protect him from that risk”.
Following the assault, his grandparents entered “a pact of silence as to what they did to Ethan that night”.
They chose instead, to blame their daughter, the court heard.
Ms Rees added: “They both had something serious to hide, namely that they were both involved in causing his death.”
She said Ethan was the victim of an assault on a “vulnerable, defenceless child,” and added he was “treated with casual brutality by the people trusted to protect him.”
The trial continues.
