Mother who protected her son’s killer rather than seek medical help is jailed

A mother who chose to protect her partner after he fatally injured her three-year-old son rather than seek emergency medical help has been jailed for seven years.

Kayleigh Siswick (pictured) was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court for causing or allowing the death of her son, Riley Siswick, alongside her partner, Kyle Campbell, who was jailed for life for murder.

The judge, Mr Justice Turner, said that by not seeking medical help for Riley after Campbell attacked him in February 2016, the pair condemned the boy to 36 hours of “unremitting and significant pain”.

He said that Campbell, who was told he must serve a minimum of 20 years in prison, was guilty of “an appalling act of selfish cruelty which condemned Riley to a slow and painful death and deprived him of any residual chance he had of survival”.

Campbell and Siswick, both 27, showed no emotion as they were sentenced on Thursday.

When they were found guilty earlier by a jury of seven men and five women, there were gasps from the public gallery.

The jury heard during the trial how Riley was found dead two days after he was seriously injured by Campbell, 27, at their Huddersfield home.

Neither Siswick nor Campbell raised the alarm about the toddler’s acute and deteriorating condition.

The trial heard how Riley was injured in his abdomen by Campbell on Thursday February 4 2016, “either from a fist, or by jumping or stamping on him or by striking him with an object”.

Robert Smith QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the blow had injured Riley so severely that his bowel was severed, spilling his stomach contents internally, which caused peritonitis – a life-threatening infection.

Mr Smith said this would have caused severe pain which “would have been obvious to the person who caused the injury or any adult who saw him after the injury was sustained”.

He said the little boy would have deteriorated and developed septic shock.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2019, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) West Yorkshire Police / PA Wire.