Mother reveals guilt as toddler’s killers jailed

THE mother of a toddler tortured by a couple employed to care for him yesterday revealed her “self-loathing and guilt” at his death.

Amy Hancox paid Kayley Boleyn and her boyfriend Christopher Taylor £40-a-week to look after three-year-old Ryan Lovell-Hancox after realising she could not cope with the strains of motherhood.

The 21-year-old suffered from mental health problems and was trying to decorate her flat.

She thought Boleyn would care for her son. They were cousins, had grown up together and Hancox had no reason not to trust the 19-year-old when she left Ryan at the flat she shared with Taylor, 25, in Bilston, West Midlands, in November 2008.

A month later the child was in a coma in hospital, having suffered a massive brain haemorrhage. He never woke up and died on Christmas Eve.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday, the pair were jailed for life for the child’s murder.

The court heard how Ryan’s life was turned to “hell” as he was forced to live in squalor during the month spent with Boleyn and Taylor.

The violence he suffered at the hands of the couple, who were both addicted to cannabis and alcohol, was not borne from a “flash of temper” but was sustained and horrific.

The child was repeatedly beaten about the face, back and buttocks. His skull received 10 severe blows and he had more than 70 injuries to his body by the time he died.

Two days before his death, Hancox confronted Boleyn and Taylor at their home as she tried to see her son. But by this stage the boy had severe bruising to his face and they stopped her from barging in.

The duo even managed to see off a social worker the day Ryan was rushed to hospital in a coma.

Hancox’s anguish at deciding to leave her son with the couple was revealed in a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecuting barrister Hugh O’Brien Quinn.

O’Brien Quinn said: “She (Hancox) says Ryan was a bubbly, intelligent boy and how she loved him with all her heart and is devastated by the loss.

“She has felt self-loathing and guilt as well as the sorrow she has for the loss of her child.”

After ordering Boleyn to serve at least 13 years in prison and Taylor to spend a minimum of 15 years in jail, Mrs Justice Macur said she hoped Ryan’s parents could now move on.

She said Boleyn and Taylor had “abused their trust”, providing better care for their two dogs.

The judge said: “You were effectively bullies in every sense of the word.”