The two-year-old boy died after suffering a fatal head injury at the home of his grandparents
Michael Ives and Kerry Ives pictured with Ethan at Tesco before murdering him(Image: North Wales Police)
A couple have been found guilty of murdering their two-year-old grandson at their home in North Wales in the summer of 2021.
Ethan Ives-Griffiths was dangerously dehydrated and severely underweight, with 40 visible bruises or marks on his body, when he collapsed with a catastrophic head injury at his grandparents’ home in Flintshire on the evening of August 14.
On Tuesday, a jury at Mold Crown Court convicted his grandfather Michael Ives, 47, and grandmother Kerry Ives, 46, of his murder and of cruelty to a child under 16.
Ethan’s mother Shannon Ives was found guilty of causing or allowing his death and of child cruelty.
The 28-year-old had been staying with her son at her parents’ home in Garden City when the court heard he was “targeted for abuse and subjected to casual cruelty”.
Jurors were visibly upset at points during the five-and-a-half week trial, during which CCTV from the family home was played which showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm and appearing to punch him after putting him into a car seat.
Michael Ives. (Image: North Wales Police/PA Wire )
The court heard Ethan had been placed on the child protection register, requiring him to be seen every 10 days.
However, when Shannon Ives last saw her social worker, on August 5, she spoke to him on the doorstep and told him Ethan was having a nap.
No-one answered the door when social worker Michael Cornish went to visit in the days before Ethan’s death and a scheduled appointment with a health visitor on August 13 was cancelled.
Ethan Ives-Griffiths. (Image: North Wales Police/PA Wire )
Shannon Ives had fled domestic violence from her home in Mold in June that year, the jury was told.
Her parents accused her of hitting her son, with Michael Ives telling the jury his daughter was “quick-tempered” and would slap Ethan a couple of times a day.
But Shannon Ives told the court her parents were “horrible” and abused her as a child.
The court heard Ethan was made to stand with his hands on his head as a punishment when he misbehaved.
Earlier in the trial, Michael Ives said he felt “ashamed” of his behaviour and admitted being cruel and neglectful of the toddler, but denied mistreating him in other ways.
Kerry Ives. (Image: North Wales Police/PA Wire )
The jury heard medical evidence that Ethan’s fatal head injury was caused by deliberate force or shaking and occurred at the time, or in the minutes before, he collapsed on the evening of Saturday, August 14 2021.
Michael and Kerry Ives, originally from Wolverhampton, were in the living room with Ethan at the time of his collapse while his mother was on the phone upstairs.
Both told the jury “nothing” had happened to the toddler before he fainted as they watched television.
Kerry Ives said she immediately called Shannon Ives to come downstairs, but the court heard it was 18 minutes before she called emergency services.
Ethan was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital and later transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where he died two days later.