A mother delayed calling 999 as her two-year-old daughter lay dying from a catalogue of abuse because she knew police would question her, a court has heard. Alexandra Walker, 25, and her boyfriend Harrison Simpson, 22, are on trial at Teesside Crown Court, charged with murder, sexual assault, allowing the death of a child, and child cruelty. The defendants deny all charges.
Isabelle's injuries and final hours
Isabelle Welsh, two, died last September after collapsing at her home in Thornaby, Teesside. A post-mortem examination revealed she had suffered 21 different broken bones in the weeks before her death and a severe head injury on the day she died. Prosecutor Richard Wright KC told the jury that on the day before Isabelle's death, the defendants had stayed up late drinking and smoking cannabis. The following morning, while Walker remained in bed, Simpson was in sole care of the toddler. He later put Isabelle to bed around 3pm on September 13 and then left the property.
Within 10 minutes of Simpson's departure, Walker searched online: "Why would my toddler be bleeding." Internal CCTV from the home recorded her saying, "You're scaring me." She then searched: "What should I do if my child has blood in his stool." Instead of calling for medical help, Walker went into the kitchen to smoke a cigarette, the prosecution alleges.
Delayed emergency call
Mr Wright said: "It is absolutely obvious that by this time Isabelle is gravely ill. She is quite simply dying. And yet, despite the searches on Google, Alexandra Walker does nothing." Around an hour after Simpson left, Walker called her stepfather, who arrived at about 4.15pm and immediately told her to call 999. Earlier that month, Walker had taken Isabelle to hospital after she suffered a broken tibia, explaining the injury as the toddler hurting herself by poking her leg through the cot.
Opening the case, Mr Wright said: "One explanation of course is that Alexandra Walker knew that this time she would not be able to bluff and bluster her way out of the very difficult questions that she knew she would be asked at hospital." Paramedics arrived within a minute and rushed Isabelle to hospital, but she died in the early hours of the next day.
Defendants' accounts
After their arrest, Walker told police that Simpson was her new partner, that they had been together for a month, and that she had raised concerns about bruises on Isabelle's body, but Simpson denied responsibility. In a later interview, she said she now realised Simpson had been abusing her daughter. Simpson did not answer questions during interviews, Mr Wright said.
The prosecutor told the court: "The prosecution will invite you to conclude that Alexandra Walker was telling lies and that Harrison Simpson said nothing because he had no answer at all to the questions that were being asked. They both knew exactly what had happened to Isabelle because in the weeks before her death they had each subjected her to violence culminating in the infliction of that terrible, fatal head injury."
Pattern of abuse
Mr Wright said the failure to take Isabelle to hospital for days after her leg was broken and the significant delay in calling 999 on September 13 was evidence that both defendants were responsible for and aware of a series of violent assaults they wanted to keep from medical scrutiny. Simpson was in sole care of Isabelle at times in the weeks before her death. Mr Wright said: "She was distressed, she was unwell, deteriorating. These were not hidden events, they were not fleeting or isolated incidents. This was a pattern of abuse over time, in a small house in the presence of both defendants." The trial continues.
