Kettering murder trial: Accused ‘violently assaulted toddler’

Ryan Coleman, 23, stands trial at Birmingham Crown Court charged with murdering the toddler in April last year at their home in Kettering.

On the first day of the trial today (Monday) jurors heard the ambulance service received a call from the victim’s mother at 9.06am on April 26.

She relayed information from her partner, Coleman, who had phoned her ‘hysterically’ at 9.04am telling her that she needed to ring them because the victim had fallen off her toddler bed and was not breathing.

The child’s mother ran home and gave her CPR before calling 999 again.

The court heard she was beside herself, shouting “she’s not breathing, she’s not breathing” five times.

She recalled Coleman saying “she’s going to hate me”.

The court heard Coleman was then heard to say “I should have caught her. I haven’t done anything, she fell off the bed”.

The victim was taken to Kettering General Hospital before being transferred to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

She died three days after the incident, on April 29.

Opening the case, prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC said the victim’s injuries did not tally with Coleman’s claim that the one-year-old fell off a bed.

He said: “The prosecution case is that Coleman deliberately and violently asaulted the victim, intending to cause her really serious harm.”

Medical professionals say the victim’s injuries were recognised as typically being seen in abusive head trauma cases.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.