Anger after cruelty trial

THERE were angry scenes outside a British court yesterday after a mother and her lover were jailed for five years after pleading guilty to child cruelty charges following the death of her 21-month-old son.

Lorna Gray, aged 30, of Sunnybraes Terrace, Fife, and James McEwan, aged 27, of Aston Avenue, Fallowfield, Manchester, each pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty after the death of John Gray in March 2003.

The boy died as a result of a ruptured liver thought to have been caused by a blow to the abdomen. A post-mortem examination found he had more than 200 injuries on 92 separate parts of his body, including multiple injuries to his stomach wall, four fractured ribs and a fractured arm.

The judge at Manchester Crown Court described the case as “very bad indeed” adding the pair had been guilty of the “most extreme” child cruelty.

The court heard Gray had separated from her husband, Dean, after she began an affair with McEwan whom she met on the internet.

Angry scenes erupted in the public gallery following the sentence, with members of Mr Gray’s family condemning the sentence as “not justice”.

The court was told Gray and her children had travelled to Manchester to stay with McEwan on Friday March 14.

The child had vomited green bile on the Saturday evening and was found unconscious and unresponsive by Gray at around 10.44am on Sunday. Paramedics were called an hour later and attempted to revive the child but he was taken to hospital and pronounced dead shortly after 12.45pm.

Mr Justice McKinnon said: “There is no explanation from either of you as to how these injuries which covered John’s body were sustained.

“The two of you by very carefully keeping your own counsel right up to today about what truly happened are guilty of the most serious cruelty to young John.”

The pair pleaded guilty to child cruelty after they had been cleared of manslaughter charges.