Alfie Lamb’s mother jailed after three-year-old boy crushed to death by car seat

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A mother has been jailed for her role in the death of her three-year-old son after he was crushed by a car seat.

Adrian Hoare was found guilty of putting her son Alfie Lamb into harm’s way by placing him into the footwell of an Audi convertible. The 24-year-old from Gravesend in Kent was sentenced to two years and nine months.

Her boyfriend Stephen Waterson, the adopted son of former government minister Nigel Waterson, was accused of squashing Alfie by reversing his car seat into him. The 25-year-old from Croydon faces a retrial in September for Alfie’s manslaughter.

London’s Old Bailey had heard that Alfie had collapsed on the journey back to Croydon from a shopping trip to Sutton, south London, in February last year. He died in hospital three days later.

Hoare, a hairdresser, was found guilty of child cruelty and assaulting Emilie Williams, who was also in the car when Alfie was fatally hurt.

The mother also admitted to plotting to pervert the course of justice in the wake of her son’s death.

Mitigating for Hoare, Katy Thorne QC said Alfie had been a happy child, and there had been no issues of neglect.

“Ms Hoare has been hugely affected by Alfie’s death, not least because she feels a huge amount of guilt over it,” she told the court. “Ms Hoare is deeply remorseful of what happened in that car that night.”

Since her conviction, Hoare had co-operated with police and agreed to “do the right thing” and give evidence in Waterson’s trial, Ms Thorne added.

Jailing her for two years for cruelty, eight months for perverting the course of justice and one month for assault, to run consecutively, Mr Justice Kerr said it was “a very sad case”.

“You intended no harm to Alfie,” he said. “You put him in danger by allowing him to travel in the footwell of the car. There was an element of deliberate disregard for Alfie’s welfare. I cannot ignore your own admission that you had allowed him to travel in the footwell many times.”

Hoare failed to tell paramedics and doctors what happened and should have disclosed “anything that might have helped him”, he said.

“I accept and bear in mind you lost Alfie, your only child,” he added. ”That is punishment already. I accept you are remorseful, although it did not show very much because you were numb in your trial.”