Mother left son in 'extreme pain'

A mother was found guilty of inflicting a "horrific" series of injuries on her baby son, who died at two months old.

Claire Biggs, of Newham, east London, left her son Rhys in "extreme pain" when she fractured 17 of his ribs by crushing him, a court heard.

However, the cause of the boy's death could not be determined, police said.

Biggs, 27, was found guilty of assault and her partner Paul Husband was found guilty of neglect. They were remanded in custody to be sentenced next month.

Inner London Crown Court heard that Biggs previously had a daughter who was taken into care in 2001, when Biggs was homeless and addicted to crack cocaine.

But health workers from Newham and Camden councils were unable to check on her son Rhys because Biggs repeatedly failed to keep appointments with them, said Ian McDonald QC, prosecuting.

Stopped breathing

Biggs called an ambulance in May 2006 saying that Rhys had stopped breathing. He died 35 minutes later in hospital.

Eleven items of baby clothes and a teddy bear were found stained with blood at their flat.

A post-mortem examination found that Rhys had suffered "a large number of bone fractures resulting from the application of severe force on at least three different occasions".

They were caused by "severe squeezing" which broke or fractured a total of 17 ribs.

The first injuries were inflicted when Rhys was one month old, the last were inflicted in the 24 hours leading to his death.

A further three fractures were found on his right arm, which "could have occurred as a result of a single severe application of force".

Such injuries would have been "extremely painful", Mr McDonald said, and were "strongly suggestive of deliberately inflicted injuries".

'Always cared'

Biggs told the court that she had "always cared" for her son, that she had never noticed any injuries and she believed his crying was due to colic.

She claimed Rhys' injuries were caused when he fell off his bed and when Husband held him up by the arm "for two minutes".

Biggs added: "He murdered my child and I am trying to find out why."

But Husband said he was never left alone with the baby.

He was just eight weeks old and for half of his life he suffered repeatedly as his bones were fractured on at least three separate occasions Det Ch Insp Dave Marshall

Outside court Det Ch Insp Dave Marshall said: "This was a very difficult investigation in view of the fact we could not establish the cause of death, although obviously Rhys had horrific injuries inflicted on him.

"He was just eight weeks old and for half of his life he suffered repeatedly as his bones were fractured on at least three separate occasions."

Kim Bromley-Derry, Newham Council's executive director for children and young people, said it carried out a Serious Case Review after Rhys' death.

"Now the court case is finished, we will look closely again to see if there are any implications for the way we deal with the protection of children," he said.

The trial followed the case of 17-month-old Baby P who died from more than 50 injuries in Haringey, east London, in August 2007.

Baby P's mother, her boyfriend and lodger were convicted of involvement in his death.

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