Mother’s boyfriend ‘beat toddler to death’, court told

A 23-month-old girl was beaten to death by the boyfriend of her mother who had just flown out to New York to celebrate her 21st birthday, a court has heard.

Roxie Archer suffered a “devastating” fatal brain injury after she was said to have been “forcibly and repeatedly punched” by Ben Raftery, 21, while in his sole care.

Raftery dialled 999 in the early hours of March 10 last year to say that Roxie had fallen down the stairs at her home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester. She died the next day in Tameside Hospital but it emerged she had also suffered extensive bruising and retinal haemorrhaging.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court heard a postmortem examination concluded the injuries were non-accidental and their timing was consistent with being inflicted while the defendant was in sole care of Roxie.

Roxie’s mother, Sophie, was taken to the US by her father on March 9, with her boyfriend of four months due to look after the daughter overnight at the house before being passed to the child’s grandmother.

Kate Blackwell QC, prosecuting, said: “The trip was due to last five days. She had only been in New York for a matter of hours when she received news that Roxie was very ill in hospital. In fact she was being kept alive on a life support machine.

“Roxie had been left in the sole care of Ben Raftery. It is the prosecution’s case that within 24 hours of being in sole charge the defendant had beaten her to death.”

Raftery moved in with Sophie Archer within weeks of meeting in November 2011 and at first appeared to bond with her daughter, the prosecutor said.

“He taught her to call him daddy,” she said. “Soon he began to refer to her as ‘daddy’s little girl’.”

But Raftery would also “engage in cruel behaviour towards her” such as holding her upside down by her ankle to “toughen her up”, the court heard.

Raftery denies murder.

The trial is scheduled to last up to two weeks.