On Listening

Two-year-old Kyrell Matthews was found to have 41 rib fractures when he died.

A jury heard the Little Boy had suffered repeated violent abuse at The Hands of His Mother and her ex-partner in the lead-up to his death on 20 October 2019.

Kyrell's mother, Phylesia Shirley, 24, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Kyrell while her ex-partner, Kemar Brown, 28, was convicted of his murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Jurors heard distressing secret recordings of the violent abuse Kyrell suffered in the lead-up to his death.

Prosecutor Edward Brown QC warned jurors at the Old Bailey from the outset. " A Warning - this is not easy to listen to; it is harrowing, " He Said .

What followed was indeed unbearable to hear - recording after recording of Kyrell being violently abused in the months before he died.

The Most distressing sounds filled the courtroom - the blows, the beatings, Kyrell's screams that followed, his desperate cries.

The Little Boy had been celebrating his second birthday just a month earlier, although The Last months of his Short Life were terrible; consumed with violence and emotional abuse.

Sunday 20 October 2019 was The Day when The Final violent assault took place.

Kyrell's ribs had already been crushed in The Weeks before. On that fateful day they were crushed again. The injuries were so severe they killed Him .

Videos of Kyrell, who was non-verbal, playing At Home in the month before he died gave no clues as to the bleak existence he was enduring. A boy with an infectious wide grin and twinkling Eyes , he appeared so happy.

On The Day he died, paramedics arrived at the two-bedroom flat in Thornton Heath , Croydon, and found Kyrell on his back on the Living Room floor in Cardiac Arrest .

One of the medical team said there was a " stench of cannabis" as they entered.

Phylesia Shirley, Kyrell's mother, had called the non-emergency 111 instead of 999. Her son's Eyes were rolling back, she calmly told The Call operator. It was As If he couldn't breathe, She Said . There was no initial urgency to her voice.

Kyrell was taken to hospital, but his life could not be saved. When Brown and Shirley were told Kyrell had died, he just shrugged and sighed.

The Little Boy had suffered dozens of rib fractures. The likely cause of death: very forceful squeezing or blows. He also had Internal Bleeding and a cut to his liver.

A post-mortem examination found that The Rib injuries had been inflicted on at least five separate occasions in the month before he was killed.

Born in September 2017, Kyrell lived with His Mother .

After some months she got a job working for Croydon Council doing clerical and youth support work.

By February 2019 she resigned, saying she found it difficult both working and raising her son.

Kyrell's father, Kyle Matthews, lived elsewhere. He says when they spent time together they would watch Peppa Pig and play with toys.

But in August 2019 he and Shirley had a disagreement, and it was at a christening that month where he last saw his son alive.

By then Shirley was in a relationship with Kemar Brown.

The 28-year-old had not been long out of prison. He had a violent past. It can now be reported he had A Number of previous convictions, including for robbery, battery, possession of a knife and restricting and obstructing a Police Officer .

When Brown came on The Scene members of Kyrell's extended family noticed they were slowly being pushed away. They began to see less and less of the Little Boy .

Brown would spend most of his time at Shirley's flat and regularly sleep over. " She wants to keep Eyes on me, " he would later tell The Police . Both were out of work. Both relied heavily on cannabis.

As the months went on Shirley became paranoid. So convinced was she that Brown was seeing other women, she secretly left her phone on record at The Flat to check up on Him . It was those recordings that captured The Sound of her son being abused, by her and her partner.

On one occasion Brown can be heard inflicting several blows on Kyrell before telling Him : " You have to ruin the fun".

On another the Little Boy is repeatedly hit, while Brown tells Him to " shut up" causing Kyrell to cry and scream.

Another file captured Shirley striking her own son and causing Him to cry in distress.

The recordings became central to The Prosecution 's case against the pair.

In May 2019, five months before Kyrell died, His Mother had taken Him to hospital. She told medical staff that he had fallen and knocked his head on a high chair. He remained in hospital for treatment for Five Days .

The Hospital investigated. It was decided Shirley's explanation was plausible so The Police did not become involved.

But it placed Shirley and Brown on the radar of Social Services , who visited them at her address.

The couple also had a visit from The Police , when a neighbour reported hearing an argument.

The pair were spoken to by officers but no-one was injured and Kyrell seemed safe and well, so no further action was taken.

Two months before Kyrell was killed, he went to stay with his grandparents. He didn't settle, he wouldn't eat and he whined All Night .

It happened again in October 2019. On that occasion Kyrell was said to be reluctant to Get Out of The Car to go back to His Mother 's flat. Within days he would be dead.

The Breakthrough in the subsequent police investigation came when officers sifted through Shirley's phone and the 50,000 pictures on it and came across the harrowing recordings.

Det Ch Insp Kate Kieran said the case had had a massive impact on her team. Some of the staff have needed specialist support because of the " unusual nature" of the case.

" This has been completely different, " She Said .

We don't know who delivered The Blow that killed Kyrell. Only Brown and Shirley know that. Jurors heard evidence that the pair's relationship continued after The Toddler 's death.

The Jury never got to hear from either of them in The Witness box; they decided not to give evidence in their defence.

During The Prosecution 's closing speech some of the recordings of Kyrell being beaten again and again were played to The Court Once More .

Unable to carry On Listening , Shirley left the dock. Did the reality of the horror of what she and her partner inflicted on Kyrell finally sink in?

It's all Too Late for the Little Boy with the infectious wide grin and twinkling Eyes - the Little Boy who was failed so badly by His Mother and her partner and The People who were meant to protect and care for Him .

Source of news: bbc.com