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The evil couples responsible for the heartless deaths of their children
They are meant to provide love and care but these evil parents have caused unimaginable pain to their children. Couples across the Midlands have been locked up over the horror deaths of their offspring.
Youngsters – some just babies – have suffered at the hands of those who should have looked after them the most. Many have been jailed for life for their unthinkable crimes, with most handed lengthy prison terms.
Here, we look at some of the heartless couples who have committed crimes together against their own children. It comes after despicable mum Carla Scott and her boyfriend Dirk Howell were caged over the death of her young son Alfie Steel yesterday.
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Dirk Howell and Carla Scott
Alfie Steel’s mum Carla Scott and her lover Dirk Howell tortured the nine-year-old to death. The schoolboy was subjected to repeated beatings and was also dunked in cold baths.
He was also woken up in the early hours of the morning and forced to stand outside as the cruel pair threw jugs of cold water over him. The boy was grounded for excessive periods, had food removed from him and banished to his room.
Howell, 41, of Princip Street, murdered the nine-year-old at a home in Droitwich in February 2021. He was convicted by jurors at Coventry Crown Court and jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years on Thursday, June 15.
Scott, 35, of Vashon Drive, was convicted of manslaughter. She previously admitted child cruelty and as jailed for 27 years.
Stephen Boden and Shannon Marsden
Cruel parents Stephen Boden, 30, and Shannon Marsden, 22, murdered their 10-month-old son Finley Boden. The tot suffered a huge 130 separate injuries – including 71 bruises and cuts, 57 bone fractures and two burns – in the weeks leading up to his death.
Some of the injuries were caused when he was up to two-weeks-old, prosecutors said. The killers were jailed for life, with Boden handed a minimum term of 29 years and Marsden 27 years in May.
A five-month trial at Derby Crown Court heard how the murder took place at the couple’s ‘unsafe and unhygienic’ home in Holland Road, Old Whittington, Derbyshire, on Christmas Day 2020. He died just 39 days after he had been returned to his parents’ care.
Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes
Stepmother Emma Tustin and bully dad Thomas Hughes tortured and killed six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. The boy was subjected to regular beatings within his home in Cranmore Road, Shirley.
He was also forced to stand still in a hallway for up to 14 hours a day as punishment for his so-called naughty behaviour. Tustin regularly made audio recordings of Arthur crying in despair.
She also poisoned the boy with salt before launching a fatal attack on him while in the home alone. Arthur died from a catastrophic brain injury which she claimed the boy did to himself.
But in fact, it was caused by a combination of ‘shaking and impact’. Both were convicted of multiple counts of child cruelty.
Tustin, in her 30s, was convicted of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years. Hughes, in his 30s, was convicted of his son’s manslaughter and jailed for 24 years.
Nathaniel Pope and Alicia Watson
Killer Nathaniel Pope and his ex-girlfriend Alicia Watson were last year locked up over the death of young Kemarni Watson Darby in the Black Country. The three-year-old bled to death in his home after being left with 30 external injuries, with some described as ‘car crash-like’ wounds.
Convicted drug dealer Pope – in his 30s and formerly of Evans Street, Wolverhampton – was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 24 years, after being convicted of murder. He attacked helpless Kemarni in the dirty and cramped two-bed West Bromwich flat where he lived with the boy’s mum and his then-girlfriend Watson.
Watson – also in her 30s and previously of Radnor Road, Handsworth – was handed 11 years behind bars for causing or allowing the death of her child. She was acquitted of murder.
Birmingham Crown Court heard how Kemarni ‘never laughed’ and could barely string sentences together. Pope assaulted the boy when he was ‘naughty’ and used snapped electrical cables to force the door to one room shut, locking the boy inside.
He was under the influence of cannabis when he delivered the fatal blow which split the boy’s abdomen while alone with the tot on June 5, 2018.
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