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Judge sums up in baby Leeya trial
JURORS at the trial of a couple accused of murdering their seven-week-old baby were yesterday told by a judge that they had to consider evidence of all her injuries.
JURORS at the trial of a couple accused of murdering their seven-week-old baby were yesterday told by a judge that they had to consider evidence of all her injuries.Judge Philip Clegg said the jurors had to take into account the opinions of a wide variety of medical experts consulted about the death of Leeya Akinrele
Prosecutors and defence lawyers representing Leeya's father Olusola Akinrele, 34, have all called doctors to give conflicting evidence at Ipswich Crown Court.
The eight-week trial heard how Leeya allegedly had 40 fractures to her body including a broken femur and22 broken ribs.
Paramedics and a doctor tried desperately to resuscitate her after she was found apparently lifeless on December 18, 2006 at her home in Lapwing Drive, Whittlesey.
She died 12 days later when her life support machine was turned off at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.
Prosecutors say she also had possible adult bite marks to her face and fingers.
The judge is due to send the jury out to consider its verdict today.
He spent yesterday outlining the opinions of different doctors who have given evidence.
Judge Clegg reminded jurors that there had been disagreement about whether Leeya's brain jury had been caused by a blow to the head or shaking.
He said: "It is important to remember that trauma to the head is not the only way a child can receive a brain injury.
"Anything that stops a heart beating or the lungs breathing will produce the same result."
Judge Clegg reminded jurors that retinal bleeding in the eyes-an indication of head trauma or shaking- was not present in Leeya's case.
But he said there had been evidence that such an injury did not happen in the cases of 30 per cent of babies who had died from shaking.
Judge Clegg went on to say how doctors had stated that the amount of force required to cause a fatal injury by shaking was "much more than just rough handling".
He said: "It would be force that any reasonable observer would recognise as being totally inappropriate for a child of six weeks.. the sort of force that would make any reasonable observer say, 'Stop that. You will hurt her.'"
Judge Clegg also pointed out differences between doctors called by Akinrele who believed that Leeya might have been suffering from a brittle bone condition, probably caused by rickets, and others who believed she had been healthy
He added: "It only remains for me to say, 'Do not look at any single injury in isolation. Look at the overall picture'. It is essential."
Akinrele and Leeya's mother Kelly Inman, now, 22, deny murder. He also denies causing or allowing Leeya's death. Inman denies causing Leeya's death.
The trial continues.
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