Serious Case Review launched as mother convicted of stamping murder of toddler
A mother has been found guilty of murder after stamping to death her “happy and smiley” 21-month-old toddler at the family home.
Kathryn Smith, aged 23, was convicted of killing Ayeeshia Jane Smith at the flat where they lived in Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, on May 1 2014.
Her 22-year-old former partner Matthew Rigby was earlier found guilty of causing or allowing her death, but cleared of murder.
Little Ayeeshia, known as AJ, suffered a fatal collapse at home just over three weeks after Derbyshire County Council social services had discussed taking the youngster into care over fears Smith was a victim of domestic abuse.
The toddler died from a fatal heart laceration most likely caused by a foot stamp and the sort of injury doctors only usually see in crash victims.
When the jury cleared Rigby of murder, he mouthed “thank you” but broke down in tears as they found him guilty on the lesser charge.
Meanwhile Smith wept uncontrollably in the dock, dabbing away the tears after the jury convicted her of cruelty and subjecting her only child to such a violent end.
Smith, of Sandfield Road, and Rigby, of Sloan Drive, both in Nottingham, had denied having anything to do with the child’s death throughout a six-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
The toddler’s mother claimed she had left Rigby alone with her daughter for “a couple of moments” when she went to get some juice, while in his evidence her ex-partner told jurors it “must have been her”.
Rigby and Smith had also been in a relationship right up until the start of the trial.
Smith gave a silver-coloured locket containing the dead girl’s ashes to Rigby while at court and the pair were also seen embracing in a private room, off the court dock.
In evidence it emerged Ayeeshia had suffered what one medical expert told the jury was “a concerning pattern” of injuries including an historic brain bleed which went undiagnosed.
A serious case review has been launched by the Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Board to look at health and social services’ involvement in the lead-up to the child’s collapse.
Twice after the couple began dating, the girl was taken to hospital, including one incident which a consultant paediatrician later described to the jury as “an apparent life-threatening incident” at a Swadlincote flat on February 3 2014.
Smith had been out shopping while Rigby said he was about to take a shower when he claimed to have heard a noise only to find Ayeeshia lying in her cot and turning blue.
She was diagnosed at hospital with a “febrile fit” linked to a high temperature and later allowed home, but a top consultant paediatrician later told the jury there seemed little basis for such a conclusion.
The couple also gave opposing accounts in court of what happened on March 19 2014, when Ayeeshia ended up at Burton’s Queen’s Hospital with a badly cut lip following a fall in the bath.
Jurors heard how Smith had a history of troubled relationships with different men.
Ayeeshia had been known to social services since birth and was taken into care for a period by social services in mid-2013, when Smith was dating another man.
Smith then began a relationship with former electrician Rigby, but the jury of five women and seven men also heard evidence of their turbulent relationship.
In January 2014, there were reports of domestic incidents between Smith and Rigby, and a child protection medical was carried out on Ayeeshia after cuts to her chin and lip were seen, and a bald patch appeared on her head.
No further concerns were raised however and the child went home with her mother.
In the early hours of April 4 2014, Smith called 999 after a heated row between the couple at their flat in Britannia Drive, Burton, claiming her partner had threatened to torch the flat.
On a recording of that call, the little girl’s voice could be heard saying “Mummy?” and crying as the couple argued with one another.
Rigby, who had two previous convictions for assault and had been in care for some of his teenage years, admitted telling Smith in anger he would “blow the house up”, but denied being prone to losing his temper.
Their next door neighbour Tracey Roberts heard a row in March 2014 and told of hearing the voice of an upset little girl who was saying “stop mummy, stop daddy”.
Ayeeshia’s case was discussed by care workers after the April 999 call came to light but they decided to provide domestic abuse support to Smith and continue to monitor the situation.
A former senior social worker, Stephen Crean, told the jury he had “no safeguarding concerns” in relation to Rigby, however they had asked Smith to sign an agreement pledging not to see the former warehouse worker.
Smith, described by one social worker as “isolated”, refused to sign the document, telling the jury she felt by that stage her daughter was bound to be taken into care whatever action she took.
She had told Mr Crean: “I love AJ – I look after her, I am a good mum.”
The child remained with her mother but at a key child safeguarding meeting the day before the youngster’s death, it was agreed a domestic abuse professional would visit Smith.
Mr Crean texted Smith to arrange the visit but in the late afternoon of May 1, Ayeeshia collapsed at home and never recovered.
Paramedics who arrived quickly on the scene described the child as already looking “blue” and cold to the touch, but both Smith and Rigby denied ringing 999.
After the child’s death, police discovered cannabis at the couple’s flat stored in a Tommee Tippee plastic cup and the jury heard both regularly smoked the drug.
A detailed post-mortem examination revealed the toddler had suffered an historic bleed on the brain linked to the previous collapse in February 2014.
Further examination revealed other injuries including broken ribs linked to the fatal attack, a large bruise to the child’s back and buttocks, bruising to her neck, head, left eyelid and left leg.
During the trial expert consultant paediatrician Dr Kathryn Ward said it was her view Ayeeshia had “a concerning pattern of a child presenting with significant injury”.
Ricky Booth, the child’s natural father, said in a court statement after the verdicts: “I now wish my daughter had been placed in permanent care as she may well have been alive and still with us now.”
He added: “Nothing will bring my daughter back and I hope in time the anger goes away and I am left with the limited time I had with AJ and not the thought of her suffering.”
Mrs Justice Geraldine Andrews said she would sentence Smith and Rigby on Monday.
Social services discussed Ayeeshia Jane Smith’s welfare three weeks before death
Social services discussed taking Ayeeshia Jane Smith into care after her stepfather Matthew Rigby threatened to torch the family flat, just three weeks before the tot was stamped to death.
A senior Derbyshire County Council social worker had a meeting with his manager in which care proceedings for the 21-month-old – known as AJ – were raised.
However, it was decided the little girl would stay with her mother, and killer, Kathryn Smith, while they investigated.
Senior social worker Stephen Crean (right), who was responsible for Ayeeshia’s case, told the trial their concerns were “escalating” about Smith being a victim of domestic abuse, at the hands of Rigby.
On April 9 2014 Mr Crean said he and his then manager Alison O’Connor met and discussed their options, including taking the child into care.
Care proceedings would have been a repeat of a similar exercise which had led to Ayeeshia being fostered from June to October 2013, when she was returned to her mother.
However, it was decided that Smith should sign a voluntary agreement not to see Rigby.
Smith refused to sign the agreement and just 22 days later she had killed the child, inflicting a fatal heart laceration on the defenceless youngster.
Mr Crean, who took early retirement last year, said: “A plan was formulated that Ms Smith would be spoken to and legal advice would be sought.”
Smith, 23, refused to sign a written agreement not to see Rigby, 22, after it emerged she had reported a threat he made to burn her flat down in a call to police she made in the early hours of April 4, 2014.
Mr Crean told jurors: “The agreement was asking her to not let Mr Rigby in the flat because the concern was, according to the police, there was a threat to set fire to the flat, so the agreement was to not have any contact.”
The conclusion of the social services meeting on April 9 was that Smith would be told “not to have Mr Rigby around at all” and to get his version of events.
He agreed there was a “reference to potentially presenting the case back to court” to take Ayeeshia into care.
Following that meeting, Mr Crean said he had a text from Smith saying she would not sign the agreement.
Mr Crean said Smith told him she had dialled 999 to report a domestic incident with Rigby but claimed the police “got it wrong” about his threat to torch the flat.
During his evidence, Smith admitted he had threatened to “blow the house up”.
In the month leading to the toddler’s collapse at the flat in Britannia Drive, Mr Crean carried out five planned and unannounced visits to see “vulnerable” Smith and Ayeeshia, but the young mother refused to comply with the social services’ directions.
Another social worker had visited on April 17, reporting to Mr Crean how Smith had refused an on-the-spot drugs test, despite a smell of cannabis at the flat.
Mr Crean said he then knocked on the door on April 25, to be told by a “spaced-out” Smith that Ayeeshia was being looked after at a friend’s house.
After the child’s death, police searching the flat found a plastic Tommee Tippee cup containing an amount of cannabis.
Ayeeshia had been known to social services since birth and was temporarily taken into care in 2013 after concerns about a troubled relationship Smith had with another boyfriend, Joshua Collier.
But of Rigby, Mr Crean said: “Social services had no safeguarding concerns that Matthew Rigby would pose any threat to Ayeeshia Jane.”
Smith’s QC John Butterfield questioned Mr Crean on that point during trial, asking: “If there were no safeguarding concerns, why were you wishing Ms Smith to sign an agreement to keep him away?”
The ex-social worker said: “That agreement is about concerns we had about the specific possibility of fire setting and we also had concerns about Matt and his relationship with Kathryn Smith, because of domestic abuse possibly taking place in that relationship.
“As for that statement there, I can only think I meant safeguarding concerns for AJ specifically – physical harm or sexual harm, of which there was no indication whatsoever.”
Tragic toddler Ayeeshia Jane Smith suffered ‘horrible’ ordeal, says detective
Little Ayeeshia Jane Smith was subjected to a “harrowing, horrible and heartbreaking” ordeal before her death at the hands of the very people who should have loved her most, the detective leading the investigation said.
Detective Inspector Andy Maxfield, from Staffordshire Police, said the tragedy of never knowing what the 21-month-old could have achieved in life “touches at my heartstrings”.
The toddler, known as AJ, was killed at a flat in Burton-upon-Trent in May 2014.
She had been violently abused by her mother Kathryn Smith, 23, who was convicted of murder, and her former partner Matthew Rigby, 22, who was found guilty of causing or allowing her death.
Speaking outside Birmingham Crown Court after the verdicts on Friday, DI Maxfield described the pair, both from Nottingham, as “evasive” and “obstructive”.
He added that their “catalogue of lies” gradually unravelled in the face of a mountain of expert witness evidence.
And he said neither of the couple – Smith from Sandfield Road, and Rigby from Sloan Drive – had ever shown any remorse or regret over what had happened.
He said: “They were evasive, there was a lot that took place in the hospital that by Matthew Rigby’s own admission he wouldn’t be proud of now, and they were obstructive.
“I understand strange things can happen at a hospital. They are grieving, there is the death of a child there, they understand that people might react in an unusual way.
“But it was noted by the police officers who attended that their reaction was particularly off-kilter and strange and particularly aggressive.”
He said their changing accounts of what had happened became “unpicked”, adding: “It went on and on to the point where it became ridiculous.”
He said: “It became evident during evidence that there were massive inconsistencies so I think Kathryn Smith was shown, throughout her evidence and her accounts to the police, to not tell the truth.
“Whether or not she tried to manipulate professionals and doctors, I don’t know.”
Describing the tragedy of Ayeeshia Jane’s death, he said: “She was 21 months old, she will never reach her potential. What would she have gone on to be? We will never know that and that’s what always touches at my heartstrings.
“What would AJ have become, where would she get to in life? (It is) sad.”
He added: “It was heartbreaking. You have heard the injuries described – they were akin to those found in a road traffic accident or if a child had fallen from height or … a child that has been stamped on.
“When you listen to that and you put it in context, it is horrifying. It is particularly upsetting for an investigative team, even more so for the family members. They have had to sit and listen to this, what has gone on.”
DI Maxfield also defended the police as having carried out “robust” action when dealing with the family before the girl’s death and refused to comment on the role of social services, saying it was a matter for the serious case review.
He said: “I hope that it is a case of ‘lessons learned’ and not ‘mistakes repeated’, and I am sure that the serious case review, a robust process, will identify any learning, and I hope that it is taken into account and lessons are learned.”
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