Eleanor Easey death: Father guilty of killing 14-week-old daughter

A father who claimed his baby daughter died from a brain injury after he slammed on his car brakes has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Christopher Easey, of Terrington St Clement, Norfolk, denied murdering 14-week-old Eleanor in December 2019.

A jury at Norwich Crown Court found him guilty of manslaughter and neglect.

Carly Easey, 36, the child's mother, also from Terrington St Clement, was found guilty of neglect. The pair will be sentenced at a later date.

The court heard Eleanor was taken to hospital on 18 December 2019 after being found unresponsive at the couple's then home in Morton on the Hill, near Lenwade, Norfolk.

A scan showed she had suffered a significant head injury and there was evidence of recent bleeding between her skull and brain.

She was later transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, but died on 20 December 2019.

A Home Office post-mortem examination established the cause of her death as a head injury that could have been caused by shaking or impact. It also found she was malnourished.

The baby girl had suffered multiple "older head and neurological injuries", the court heard, as well as 31 rib fractures and five sites of fracture on her limbs.

Norfolk Police said the couple's friends, colleagues and family members told detectives Eleanor was fed biscuits and cheesecake, given squash to drink and was left at home alone by her parents.

When asked by medics how Eleanor had sustained the fatal injuries, Christopher Easey said he had been forced to brake suddenly with Eleanor in the car, the force said.

A police examination of the couple's car didn't find any evidence that it had been involved in a collision or a situation when the driver had forcibly applied the brakes.

Det Insp Lewis Craske, of Norfolk Police said: "Eleanor's parents, the very people who should have protected and loved her above everything and everyone else, failed her on an unimaginable scale from the moment she was born."

The couple will be sentenced on 29 April.

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