Man shook 20-day-old daughter so badly she was left like a 'rag doll' before she died, court hears
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BOLTON, ENGLAND: A two-week-old baby girl was left "like a rag doll" with "catastrophic" brain and spine injuries after her father allegedly shook her to death, a court heard.
Darin Harvey, 25, of Wardle, Rochdale is on trial for murdering his daughter Felicity-May Harvey, who was just 20 days old, at their home in Heywood, Greater Manchester, in January 2021. However, he has denied all the allegations. Jurors at Bolton Crown Court on Wednesday, October 19, heard Felicity-May suffered "catastrophic" brain and spine injuries after being "deliberately shaken" by Harvey. Prosecutors noted that Felicity-May was born with a cleft palate which affected her ability to eat and that’s why the parents were guided to treat her with an "extra degree of care," according to The Daily Mail.
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According to The Daily Mail, Prosecutor Tim Storrie KC said that Harvey murdered his daughter moments after his partner and Felicity-May’s mother, Heather Connolly, had left their home around 2 pm on January 8, 2021, jurors heard. Being extra careful with her daughter, Connolly even sent her husband a reminder to feed the baby girl. Storrie said, "Heather Connolly was out of the home for no more than a quarter of an hour. By the end of that quarter of an hour, her whole world had changed."
The family of a 2 week old baby girl from Heywood say they're heartbroken by her death. A 24 year-old man's been questioned on suspicion of murdering Felicity May Harvey from Heywood #CapitalReports pic.twitter.com/LnoflOwSl3
— Capital North West News (@CapitalNWNews) January 17, 2021
KC said that Harvey allegedly "physically manhandled" Felicity-May by shaking her to death when Connolly was out. On her way home, Connolly received a call from Harvey expressing concern about their daughter. She rushed home only to find Felicity-May limp, blue and struggling to breathe, prosecutors said. She immediately called 999 and took her daughter local hospital, where the doctors revealed "a catastrophic constellation of injuries to the baby's brain, as well as severe spinal cord injury," according to Storrie. Despite doctors' best efforts, the tiny girl died just three days later.
Storrie told the jury, "She was, you may think, bewildered, as to what had occurred. For some time she feared that the cleft palate had allowed her daughter to breathe in some of her feed, and that stopped her breathing." The court heard that the medical experts even found evidence of "very substantial bleeding in the eyes" typical of "severe, abusive head trauma, such as occurs with shaking or shaking with impact."
According to Daily Mail, Storrie continued, "The consequences of her being handled in this way would have been immediately apparent to anyone present. It would have been rapidly obvious that Felicity had become seriously unwell. She would have become like a rag doll," adding, "We say that the trauma done to Felicity was expressive of an intention to cause her really serious harm, for there can be no other explanation for a man shaking a young child. For that reason, we put to you the case that Darin Harvey is guilty of murder.:"
Harvey was first arrested the same day of the incident, but was released after the investigators failed to find any solid evidence against him. However, three days later, Felicity-May died in the hospital, the deputies again arrested him and charged him with murder. During interrogation, Harvey denied all the allegations and claimed Felicity-May was "well, responsive and happy" when he fed her. He claimed she had "stuck out her tongue" before she "became sleepy" and he then put her on the bed, according to Storrie.
A police interview was also played during the trial, in which Connolly told investigators that she got a call from Harvey a few minutes before she arrived. "There's something wrong with baby," Harvey told her on call. At first Connolly thought Felicity-May may have been choking. "I was not sure if he had started feeding her and she had choked. I lay her on the bed. Darin kept asking me, "What's wrong with her?" I didn't know, I had just got back. I ran round like a headless chicken. Seconds seemed like minutes and minutes seemed like hours."
A panicked Connolly asked Harvey what happened to which he replied he didn’t know. "He said he picked her up out of the moses basket to feed her. She looked at him, did a little smile and her eyes rolled back and he said something about her weight doubling. He said he knew something had gone wrong," she told the court.