Toddler suffered 'pain, misery and casual brutality' in his short life, murder trial told

GRANDPARENTS DENY CHARGES AFTER DEATH OF ETHAN, 2

- By ELEANOR BARLOW and DAVID POWELL

A TODDLER found with 40 injuries on his body endured “pain, misery” and “casual brutality” in the weeks before he was murdered by his grandparents, a court was told yesterday.

Kerry Ives, 46, and her husband Michael, 47, are accused of the murder of their two-year-old grandson Ethan Ives-Griffiths, who died in hospital on August 16 2021 after an ambulance was called to their home in Deeside, Flintshire, two days earlier.

Mold Crown Court heard the couple blamed his death on their daughter, Ethan’s mother, Shannon Ives, who is accused along with her parents of causing or allowing his death and of child cruelty.

At the opening of their trial yesterday, a jury was told Shannon Ives, 28, and her son had been living with her parents in the time leading up to his death.

Caroline Rees KC said: “The prosecution say Ethan’s time at the first and second defendants’ home was thoroughly miserable and he was targeted by the defendants as an object of abuse and neglect.”

She added: “He was quiet and withdrawn, small and painfully thin.”

She said the toddler was exposed to “casual brutality” and, according to a medical expert, would have experienced “distress, pain and misery in the days and weeks prior to his death”.