Father of baby who died of catastrophic brain injury guilty of murder

The father of a five-week-old baby who died of a “catastrophic” brain injury after suffering more than 40 rib fractures during repeated assaults has been found guilty of her murder.

Darcy-Leigh Jefferson also had fractures to both of her legs which were caused at different times during the 10 days before she died on March 29 2022, a seven-week trial at Stafford Crown Court heard.

The baby’s father, 35-year-old Sean Jefferson, of Birch Court, Walsall, was found guilty of murder and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Darcy’s mother Amy Clark, 34, was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of causing or allowing serious harm to a child after charges of murder or manslaughter against her were dropped by prosecutors as closing speeches were made to the court last week.

She was not guilty of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Jefferson, who wore a grey tracksuit and blue Adidas jacket, shook his head in the dock as the jury of eight women and four men returned their unanimous verdicts on Monday.

Clark, who wore a green jumper, black trousers and a beige coat in the dock, put her hand to her face.

Judge Mrs Justice Brunner KC said the pair would be sentenced on a date to be fixed and thanked the jury for their attention to the case.

The jury foreperson, who gave the verdicts in court, wiped her eyes as the judge thanked them for their attention to the “upsetting” case and discharged them from further jury service for life.

The judge said: “Thank you for carrying out your jury work with such dedication. I have seen how hard each of you has concentrated and how seriously you have taken this very difficult work.

“I know this can’t have been easy for any of you but you have done a very important public duty.”

The trial heard Darcy, who was born five-weeks premature on February 20 2022, had been “physically assaulted on a repeated basis” and had a total of 47 rib fractures when she died of a brain injury two days after being taken to hospital on March 27 that year.

Prosecution counsel Harpreet Sandhu KC said the head injury had been caused by Darcy being shaken violently or having her head struck against a surface.

The court heard the fatal attack must have taken place between 7am and 7.18am on March 27 after Jefferson took Darcy downstairs at their then-home in Hudson Drive in Burntwood, Staffordshire.

“If Darcy had been crying before she stopped breathing, as Sean Jefferson suggested, the reality, you may think, is that Sean Jefferson put a stop to Darcy crying,” Mr Sandhu told the jury in his closing speech.

“He put a stop to Darcy screaming. He did that by shaking his five-week-old daughter violently.

“As a result, his five-week-old daughter sustained a catastrophic head injury and she would have stopped breathing almost as soon as she received that fatal head injury.”

During the trial, Mr Sandhu told the jury Clark was living at a “tidy and well-presented” home and gave the impression of being a mother who was in control while hiding the fact she “drank a lot of alcohol and she took cocaine”.

The Crown’s barrister said the background to the relationship between Jefferson, of Birch Court, Walsall, and Clark helped to explain how Darcy “came to be assaulted repeatedly and killed”.

Mr Sandhu said of Clark: “The impression Amy Clark gave hid the truth.

“Beneath the veneer of the well-presented and ordered life she wanted others to believe she led, was a more chaotic existence which flowed, no doubt, from her alcohol and drug use.”

In September 2021, while Clark was pregnant, the court heard Jefferson sent her a message threatening to “put you 6ft underground” if she killed her baby through drinking.

Jefferson was also a drug user, the court heard, smoking cannabis in the garage during a “volatile” relationship said to be characterised by consistent disagreements and aggression.

Both parents were taking drugs during their daughter’s short life, the trial was told.

Jefferson and Clark opted not to give evidence in their defence during the trial.

Mr Sandhu said during his closing speech it was their right not to give evidence but their choice not to, when they were the only people who could tell the court what happened to Darcy, was “telling”.

He said: “They have chosen to remain silent. They have chosen to remain silent in response to evidence about how their daughter was injured repeatedly.

“They have chosen to remain silent about evidence relating to what led to their daughter’s death. Their silence is deafening.

“As we think about their silence at trial, we might well remember that neither of these defendants is a shy or retiring wallflower. We have seen the messages they sent to each other and to others.

“Neither defendant has the slightest compunction in mouthing off frequently and loudly.

“The position for each, however, is different when they might have to provide accounts for their daughter’s injuries and her death.

“They have remained silent because they each bear some responsibility for the events that led to their daughter suffering injuries and their daughter being killed.

“One of them caused her rib fractures in the first couple of weeks of her life. The other allowed those rib fractures to be caused.

“One of them caused rib fractures and fractures to her leg five to 10 days before she died. One of them allowed that to happen.

“One of them killed her. The other allowed Darcy’s death to be caused.”

Addressing the defendants in the dock after the verdicts, Mrs Justice Brunner said: “You have been convicted by this jury and the next stage will be for me to sentence you. That won’t take place today.

“We will deal with finding a sentencing date administratively and you will be told about that.

“You can both now go down.”