The little boy who was utterly failed by the very people who should have loved and cared for him

North Wales Live

2 days ago

He was the boy who was let down on all sides. His mother, grandmother and grandfather were all directly culpable - and health visitors and social workers were unable to halt the countdown to disaster.
Deviousness on the doorstep regarding Ethan's real condition and some of the pandemic restrictions due to Covid-19 all contributed in the failure to stop the downward spiral for the innocent two-year-old.
It culminated in a belated and frantic 999 call by grandmother Kerry Ives after Ethan's second collapse on August 14, 2021. But she had still felt it necessary to Facetime one of her daughters for advice first, creating an unfathomable, 18-minute delay. You can sign up for all the latest court stories here
During the trial, a paediatric neurosurgeon Dr Jayaratnam Jayamohan said that that delay would 'probably' have made no difference to the outcome for the emaciated, brown-haired toddler. By that point it was simply too late.
He said the head injury could have been caused by an impact. He said it could have been from 'either some object moving to hit the right side of Ethan's head, or Ethan's head moving to hit an object.
"It could be a fist, a hand or a knee or it could be an object that you pick up', or from Ethan being shaken, or both," he told the jury.
During the 999 call, the call handler told Kerry Ives to get someone to collect a defibrillator from a yellow cabinet on the front wall of a pharmacy on Welsh Road.
Michael Ives then "flew" outside to collect it to save the malnourished tot - likely not motivated by genuine concern for Ethan but only the potential consequences that would come for himself.
Soon the ambulance arrived at 44 Kingsley Road. Doorbell footage showed a paramedic entering and coming out carrying the limp, thin Ethan to the waiting ambulance that night.
That clip left an indelible mark on the minds of many in court. No stretcher was required - he was that small.
The tot had sustained 40 marks and bruises which Michael Ives claimed was surprising. He died in Alder Hey children's hospital on Merseyside on August 16 with experienced Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers citing blunt force injuries.
He had probably been punched in the abdomen, he concluded. There was bleeding in two areas of his abdomen which spread to bleeding on the brain, brain stem and down his spinal cord.
Dr Rodgers said: "This type of pathology is related to severe trauma, severe force, likely to be seen in a high speed road traffic collision. You are not going to get this bleeding and spinal injury from a low level force.
"(Or) you'd have to fall from a great height - three, four, five storeys from a balcony" (to have Ethan's injuries). 'It's like someone has been punched in the guts,' he said in court.
Yet the jury of seven women and five men heard Ethan had once been a lively even chubby boy - 'a little chump', according to his mum Shannon Ives. For various reasons, he ended up with his grandparents in Garden City.
Footage showed him playing in the garden, on a trampoline and in a paddling pool - known to the family as the swimming pool. The irony was that this family footage was eventually used by the prosecution to convict them, as it revealed their grisly cruelty.
Michael Ives intimated Ethan should be punched, forced the lad to put his hands on his head as 'punishment' for over 40 minutes on one occasion, (as he needed to learn 'the hard way'), and callously let him lie on the bouncy surface with activity around him.
All were signs of the unfolding cruelty. Once North Wales Police got involved Michael claimed he was 'ashamed' and 'disgusted' with himself.
He particularly regretted dragging Ethan by one arm on several occasions from the trampoline or to the car. But this apparent shame and disgust came too late to save the little boy.
As for Ethan's mother Shannon, she claimed she was too 'scared' to report her Dad to the authorities - fearing his reaction. She said she 'hated' her Dad for what he did to Ethan. She coldly calls her parents 'Michael and Kerry'.
She and her siblings had been subjected to corporal punishment as children by their parents, according to her and her brother Josh. Shannon also claimed she didn't want to go back to the home she once shared with Ethan's Dad Will Griffiths in Mold - that's partly why she ended up in Kingsley Road.
Shannon told her defence barrister Gordon Cole KC that in one troubling incident - in which Michael walks with an exaggeratedly wide gait behind his grandson along the path into their house on August 13 that Michael Ives was "mimicking Ethan".
Shannon said she was smiling because she "didn't know what he was doing' at first. "Looking back he was obviously taking the p*** out of Ethan," Shannon Ives admitted.
On the night August 14 when Ethan collapsed her Dad Michael said his legs had gone like 'jelly' and he carried him into the garden, as the adults tried to revive Ethan.
Soon afterwards Shannon said she realised her mum Kerry was on the phone to her sister Nicole. Shannon said she asked 'What are you doing? What are you not ringing an ambulance?'
And Shannon said Michael said 'Just ring an ambulance'.
Later Shannon said she saw Ethan at Alder Hey children's hospital. He had tubes coming out of him and a bandage around his head. She was in a 'really bad state…upset and crying and wondering what had happened to Ethan,' the court heard.
Shannon too let Ethan down. She herself acknowledged she put her son "at risk of serious harm" by not leaving. She tried and failed to do so the night before his fatal collapse.
She said her parents "threatened her with social services" if she exposed the cruelty. Ultimately, she said as a mum she let Ethan down during a tearful exchange with prosecutor Caroline Rees KC in courtroom No. 1.
She wasn't the only one.