A north Antrim couple have been convicted of a shocking assault which left a little boy blind, brain damaged and fighting for life.
Standing in the dock of Newry Crown Court, Chris Fulton (35) shook his head in continued denial as the jury foreman announced verdicts against him and his wife Amanda Fulton.
The jury found Fulton unanimously guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and two charges of child cruelty by wilfully neglecting the young victim.
While Mrs Fulton (35) was acquitted of GBH with intent and one charge of child cruelty, she was however unanimously convicted of causing or allowing the child to suffer significant physical harm and a further charge of child cruelty.
Thanking the jury, Judge Peter Irvine KC told members the trial “has been very harrowing, I have no doubt, for everyone concerned having to hear the evidence in this case.”.
Since trial had been told that the child was unresponsive on the morning of November 7 2019 but despite their concerns, neither Fulton called a doctor for three hours.
When the boy was eventually seen by the GP at 4pm that day “he was a very sick chid”.
He was taken to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children with life threatening injuries including:
- Fractured skull with associated bleeding to the brain and retinal bleeding
- 27 rib fractures
- Fractures to both thigh bones
- Fractures to both shin bones
- Fractured wrist
- A lacerated live.
It had always been the Crown case that with no credible, innocent explanation for the injuries which experts compared to those a child might sustain in a high speed car crash, one or other of the defendants was responsible for causing the injuries and that given the nature and size of the family home at Rockfield Gardens just outside Ballymoney, the other must have witnessed or heard it yet did nothing to intervene or help the boy.
The jury heard numerous medical expert witnesses describe the injuries suffered by the very young boy as “severe and significant” and were so serious that he would have died without medical intervention.
Giving evidence on their own behalves the now separated couple launched what is know as a cut throat defence with each of them blaming the other while maintaining their innocence.
Following the verdicts, Mrs Fulton’s defence counsel Declan Quinn asked for her to be freed on bail pending sentence, highlighting that she was convicted of a lesser role and has already served the equivalent of a two year sentence.
Judge Irvine denied both bail ahead of sentencing. Adjourning the case to allow time for various reports to be compiled, the judge said he would pass sentence on December 13.