Coroner: Parent 'shook baby to death'
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The parents of a dead baby are unlikely ever to face prosecution despite "overwhelming evidence" that one of them shook the boy to death and both lied to cover up the killing, a coroner ruled yesterday.
An inquest into the death of six-month-old Angus Fell, who died at his home in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, found that he suffered fatal injuries to his brain stem consistent with being violently shaken.
His parents, Anthony and Angela Fell, insisted they had not harmed the child, claiming instead they were the victims of a double cot death tragedy, having lost another baby six years ago. The couple, who both gave evidence to the hearing, said they found Angus lying pale and lifeless in his cot after he had been put to bed for an nap in December 1999.
But Ian Smith, the Furness Coroner, ruled that the infant had died as the result of an unlawful killing after hearing testimony from medical experts that the death could not have been accidental.
In an unusually forthright judgment, the coroner added that he believed the Fells had agreed a story together to protect the perpetrator of the killing from being prosecuted.
He said: "I am sure Angus was shaken. The medical evidence is overwhelming, it is not contradicted. Angus's death was not natural, it did not result from an accident." Alleging that the couple had "fabricated" their version of events after returning from a shopping trip, he added: "The stories match because one of Mr and Mrs Fell is covering up for the other.
"They know what happened to Angus. When they returned from town that day, one of the parents, for some reason, snapped, shook him violently and thought he was dead. They then cobbled together a story to explain what had happened."
Despite being "fairly confident" about which of the Fells shook Angus, Mr Smith said the law stated that if neither of the parents could be singled out for the killing, there could be no prosecution. As a result, a lengthy investigation by Cumbria Police into the incident was highly unlikely to yield charges against either of the couple, the hearing was told.
Mr Fell, 43, an unemployed machine operator who has since been divorced by his wife in proceedings described as a "sham" by the coroner, denied he had physically abused his son. He said yesterday after the coroner's ruling: "Angus was a lovely little lad, he was full of life and had no illnesses. It certainly wasn't me and I don't believe it was Angela. I still believe it was a cot death."
Mrs Fell, who still shares a home with her former husband in Barrow-in-Furness, denied during the inquest that she had shaken the baby or was covering up for her husband. But medical experts said bleeding found behind Angus's eyes meant that his death could not have been accidental.
Dr Michael Clark, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Booth Hill Hospital in Manchester, where Angus died, said: "By far the commonest cause [of bleeding behind the eyes] is inflicted injury, usually shaking.
"This wasn't a story of a child who had been increasingly unwell for several days; this was a well child who was suddenly found dead."
Cumbria Police said it had treated Angus's death as a possible murder or manslaughter as soon as its officers were called in to investigate the case.
But an inquiry involving social services and leading child abuse experts failed to gather enough evidence to begin proceedings. The force confirmed last night that it was unlikely that charges would be brought.