Addict shook girlfriend’s son to death after campaign of deliberate assaults, court told
A drug addict shook his girlfriend’s 15-month-old son to death following a campaign of deliberate assaults on the toddler which his mother did nothing to stop, a court has heard.
Jake Drummond, 33, is accused of murdering Jacob Lennon on August 27 2019 after taking cocaine with a friend.
He is also accused of unlawfully or maliciously wounding the boy with intent to cause serious harm.
Drummond’s then partner Louise Lennon (pictured), 32, is accused of causing or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty.
The Old Bailey heard texts between them revealed “a reference to putting him in the torture chamber” and Louise Lennon referring to Jacob as looking like “a little madman” because of his bruises.
Jurors were told Drummond had taken cocaine at around 10.30pm on August 26 after he became angry at having to go to the police station because he had been reported by his ex-girlfriend of six years, who said he had been harassing her in a way which was “little short of obsessive”.
Jacob (pictured) was found with massive swelling and bruising on his face by paramedics after his mother called 999, claiming he had bumped his head “like he fell out of bed or something”, jurors were told.
Medics found his eyes were so swollen they could not open and he “looked like a panda” because he had dark bruises under them, jurors were told.
He was very pale, lifeless, not breathing and in cardiac arrest, and died just over an hour after being taken to hospital
He also had bruises on his forehead, the other side of his temples and his cheeks while his skull was “almost soft and spongy-like”.
The court was also told his testicles were swollen and he had an injury on his penis consistent with the application of blunt force such as “extreme pinching” or biting, which the prosecution described as “sadistic”. These injuries make up the second charge.
Traces of cocaine were also found in his system after he died, the court heard.
The prosecution said Drummond would often take cocaine at night which would leave him unable to sleep, and became frustrated Jacob slept in the bed with him and Lennon.
Prosecutor Sally O’Neill KC told jurors: “It is the Crown’s case that Jake Drummond had embarked on a campaign of deliberately assaulting and hurting Jacob between July and the end of August.
“The injuries which he caused were obvious and noticeable.
“It is clear that at some stage that night, if Jacob was in bed with Louise Lennon at 1am, someone must have taken him out of the bed.
“It is also clear that at some stage, someone, the Crown say Jake Drummond, seriously assaulted Jacob by shaking him and hitting him so severely that he became unconscious.
“It is almost inconceivable that Louise Lennon would not have heard the sounds of that assault, but even if she didn’t … she not only did nothing about it but contrived with Jake Drummond to concoct a story to try and create a completely false account of what had happened to Jacob.
“The events schedule demonstrates for you what the priorities were for these defendants. Jacob’s well-being did not feature in that list. They were concerned only for themselves and their own needs and interests.”
As well as claiming her son had fallen from his cot, Lennon also said Jacob tripped on their way back from a supermarket to their flat in Roehampton, south-west London, but gave different accounts about whether that had happened 13 or five days before he died.
Social services had placed Jacob under a child protection plan under the category of emotional abuse in December 2018, but on August 20 2019 Lennon lied to the social worker by saying she was on holiday in Hastings to skip a planned visit.
A post-mortem examination by Dr Nat Carey found Jacob had died after multiple episodes of inflicted trauma culminating in the infliction of the fatal head injury, and that it is likely Jacob hit his head against a blunt surface while he was being shaken.
The court heard a neuropathologist found Jacob had several previous injuries which were days to weeks old, and a “final” injury which was less than two days old.
The pair deny all charges.
Drummond says he never injured Jacob while Lennon says she was being “coerced and threatened” by her boyfriend into not getting help for her son.
The trial continues.
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