Toddler’s mum sobs as 999 call is played to jury
8:09am Saturday 27th October 2012 in News
THE mother of a dying toddler wept as her harrowing 999 call was played to a murder trial jury.
Hysterical Kirsty Smedley told the operator that her two-year-old son, Rio, had stopped breathing and was not responding as she gave him CPR.
The emergency services had been told that Rio had fallen down the stairs.
But Daniel Rigby, aged 23, of Tyldesley, is charged with his murder, which he denies.
The jury previously heard that the youngster had 91 injuries, including his liver receiving a blow o hard that it split in half.
Smedley, aged 24, is charged with allowing the death of a child after failing to take steps to protect him, which she denies.
She sobbed in the dock as the phone call was played in full at Manchester Crown Court, yesterday.
The operator was telling Smedley to blow into his mouth and feel his chest move and to pump it 30 times.
She frantically replied that Rio was not doing anything as the operator tried to keep her calm.
The operator explained that Smedley was doing the breathing for him and that she was doing the best she could for him.
Rapid response paramedic Simon Chell arrived at the house in Cheriton Drive, Breightmet, shortly after 5.30pm on April 22.
Simon Phillips, QC, prosecuting, read his statement to the jury.
He said: “I saw a male on a mobile phone outside who shouted to me ‘He is not breathing’. He was composed and controlled.
“A female came flying out of the house. She was hysterical shouting and crying ‘He has fallen down the stairs’.”
Mr Chell said in his statement that Rio was on the settee wearing just a nappy. He described the youngster’s skin as “extremely white” and he had no pulse.
His pupils were unresponsive and Mr Chell said it was clear that he was in cardiac arrest, and he continued resuscitation.
Mr Chell said he scooped Rio up in his arms and moved him onto the carpet.
He noticed a number of bruises on his body.
When the ambulance arrived, Mr Chell said he ran out of the house with Rio in his arms and he was taken to The Royal Bolton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
He added: “It was only afterwards when the drama of the moment was over that I took a breath and thought about the bruises on the child. When told he had fallen down the stairs, I took it at face value.”
The trial continues.
