Killer parents used Covid rules to hide baby's torture

Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden are jailed for the 'savage and brutal' murder of their 10-month-old son Finley

- LAURA SHARMAN

A "perfect" 10-month-old baby boy was murdered by his own parents after they used Covid to trick social services.

Shannon Marsden, 22, and Stephen Boden, 30, launched a "savage and brutal" tirade of abuse against their son Finley Boden which left him with 130 injuries including burns and broken bones. He died on Christmas Day 2020 during lockdown. The pair were jailed yesterday, with Boden serving a minimum of 29 years and Marsden 27 years.

They brutally murdered the innocent baby after convincing authorities to return him to their full-time care following a Family Court order in October 2020, having previously described him as "perfect" and a "cuddly, chunky munchkin".

The case has shone a spotlight on the often hidden world of Family Court hearings. The order giving the baby back to his parents sparked a sequence of events that culminated in his murder at their hands, despite concerns being raised about their drug use and parenting abilities by social services.

Finley was taken into care in February 2020, immediately after he was born and just weeks before the UK's first lockdown of the pandemic. Social workers from Derbyshire Council originally concluded he was at 'serious risk of harm' if he stayed with his parents. They described the couple's shocking living conditions, with Finley's clothes and bedding "stained with saliva", and their home described as "very unclean and at times hazardous with faeces on the floor".

Concerns were also raised over domestic violence, of which Boden had previously been convicted, and the couple's use of cannabis. Despite this in mid-November that same year, Finley was returned to Marsden and Boden's home in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.