Alexandra Walker, 25, allegedly delayed calling emergency services as her two-year-old daughter Isabelle Welsh lay dying because she feared being questioned about the child's horrific injuries, a court has heard. Teesside Crown Court was told that Isabelle had suffered 21 separate broken bones in the weeks before her collapse at the family home in Thornaby, Teesside, last September.
Prosecution Details the Day Before Isabelle's Death
Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said that the day before Isabelle died from a severe head injury, the defendants had been up late drinking and smoking cannabis. While Walker stayed in bed the following morning, her boyfriend Harrison Simpson, 22, was up and in sole care of the toddler. Simpson later put Isabelle to bed and left the property around 3pm on September 13.
Mr Wright stated that within 10 minutes of Simpson leaving, Walker googled "Why would my toddler be bleeding." Internal CCTV from the home recorded her saying "You're scaring me" and then she searched "what should I do if my child has blood in his stool." Around this time, Walker went into the kitchen to smoke a cigarette. Mr Wright said: "It is absolutely obvious that by this time Isabelle is gravely ill. She is quite simply dying. And yet, despite the searches on Google, Alexandra Walker does nothing."
Delay in Calling Emergency Services
Approximately an hour after Simpson left, Walker called her stepfather, who arrived at around 4:15pm and immediately told her to call 999. Earlier that month, Walker had taken Isabelle to hospital after she suffered a broken tibia, explaining the injury as Isabelle hurting herself by poking her leg through the cot.
Opening the case to the jury, Mr Wright said: "In due course you may want to consider why there was very significant delay in summoning the emergency services. One explanation of course is that Alexandra Walker knew that this time she would not be able to bluff and bluster her way out of the very difficult questions that she knew she would be asked at hospital."
Arrests and Interviews
Paramedics arrived within a minute and Isabelle was rushed to hospital, but she died in the early hours of the next day. Walker and Simpson were arrested. Walker initially said Simpson was her new partner of one month and that she had raised concerns about bruises on Isabelle's body, but he denied responsibility. In a later interview, she told police she now realised Simpson had been abusing her daughter. Simpson did not answer questions during interviews, Mr Wright said.
Mr Wright told the court: "The prosecution will invite you to conclude that Alexandra Walker was telling lies and that Harrison Simpson said nothing because he had no answer at all to the questions that were being asked. They both knew exactly what had happened to Isabelle because in the weeks before her death they had each subjected her to violence culminating in the infliction of that terrible, fatal head injury."
Pattern of Abuse
Simpson was in sole care of Isabelle at times in the weeks before her death. Mr Wright said both defendants were aware of what was happening to Isabelle, which would have been "obvious." He added: "She was distressed, she was unwell, deteriorating. These were not hidden events, they were not fleeting or isolated incidents. This was a pattern of abuse over time, in a small house in the presence of both defendants."
Both defendants deny murder, sexual assault, allowing the death of a child, and multiple counts of child cruelty. The trial continues.
