Baby boy battered to death by his mother who posed for a selfie next to his injured body as she faces life in prison
- Jury find Emma Wilson guilty of murdering 11-month-old Callum
- 25-year-old battered her tiny son causing him to suffer brain damage, nine fractured ribs, a broken arm and leg
- Neighbours told of their ceiling shaking as they heard 'loud bangs' the night before Wilson dialled 999 telling the operator Callum was lifeless
- She said Callum's two-year-old brother had inflicted the vicious attack
- Wilson kept Callum's birth a secret, finally claiming he was her cousin's child
- She buried her child in an unmarked communal grave
By LIZZIE PARRY
|
Callum Wilson died of brain damage after his mother Emma battered him, fracturing nine of his ribs, his arm and leg
A mother who took a selfie with the battered body of the 11-month-old son she had beaten, causing him to suffer brain damage which later caused his death, is today facing prison.
Emma Wilson repeatedly hit baby Callum so violently her neighbour's ceiling shook.
She then blamed the attack on his two-year-old brother, the Old Bailey heard.
Callum was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with 'catastrophic injuries' on March 20, 2011.
A post mortem revealed the 11-month-old had suffered fatal brain damage.
During the attack Callum suffered nine fractured ribs, a broken leg and arm.
After inflicting the injuries, Wilson posed next to her crying son, grinning as she took a selfie.
The photographs revealed severe bruising to his face and another showed the 11-month-old moving away from a young boy wielding a pair of open secateurs.
But in a bid to offer an explanation Wilson blamed the attack on her other child, claiming Callum's 'boisterous' and 'rough' two-year-old brother was to blame.
She said he was jealous of his younger sibling.
In a gruesome twist, the 25-year-old, who had told people Callum was her cousin's son, buried his battered body in an unmarked communal grave.
A jury at the Old Bailey took 10 hours to find Wilson guilty of murder by a unanimous verdict.
During the trial jurors heard how Wilson left her new-born son in Wexham Park Hospital after he was born on April 23, 2010.
She claimed she had put her son up for adoption because her boyfriend at the time, Neil Richardson, 'thought she couldn't cope with two children'.
Emma Wilson, 25, took a selfie, grinning next to the injured body of her crying son. Neighbours told how their ceiling shook as they heard repeated bangs the day before Wilson dialled 999 reporting her son lifeless
Wilson, left, arrives at the Old Bailey today. A jury spent 10 hours deliberating before returning a unanimous guilty verdict
In November 2010 Wilson took Callum out of foster care and brought him to live in her council flat in Windsor.
She continued to lie about Callum in the months after he came to live with her and Wilson told her nursery he was ‘Callum Keeler’, her cousin’s son.
Neighbours described hearing five or six loud bangs that caused the ceiling to shake above their living room the night before paramedics were called to Wilson’s home in Windsor.
In cross examination prosecutor Paul Dunkels QC said: ‘It couldn’t have been your eldest child, climbing up the furniture and jumping off.
‘Their evidence was they [the bangs] were seconds apart.
‘He wouldn’t have been able to get up, jump off it and climb up it again.’
The next morning Wilson had told an emergency operator the child was ‘lifeless and not doing anything'.
Callum was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on March 20, 2011 with 'catastrophic' injuries. A post mortem revealed he died of brain damage
The recording reveals Wilson said: ‘I just got him out the cot. He was fine when he went to bed. He’s lifeless and not doing anything. He’s making noises but I don’t know.’
Callum had obvious bruising to his face and later examination revealed he had suffered severe brain damage and fractures to nine ribs, left leg and his right arm.
The jury were shown computer-generated images of the injuries, some of which Wilson tried to blame on her efforts to revive her son.
‘I was holding him really tight because his head was very heavy’, she told the court.
‘Well, I was panicking, he wasn’t holding his head.’
She added that when she tried to check her son's airway she tore his lip.
She claimed she never hurt her son and said: ‘It’s the best thing in the world being a mum.’
But Mr Dunkels said that Wilson had been unable to put forward a ‘plausible explanation’ for the injuries.
‘Callum was in her sole care at her flat throughout that 13-hour period and nothing she has said can explain what has happened to him.
‘The effect of the injuries would have been immediate and catastrophic.’
Wilson was accused of killing her child because she knew her partner at the time, Neil Richardson, was not the father, according to her defence barrister Michael Turner QC.
Mr Turner added: ‘Emma Wilson chose to bury Callum in a communal grave without a headstone.’
Wilson denied murder. She will be sentenced on January 24.
I live in the same block and have a child the same age as this person. It chills me to the core that I used to smile, say 'morning' on the stairs and thought about striking up a conversation suggesting the children play together. I am so very sad for this little boy who didn't even get the dignity of a proper grave
ReplyDelete