A mother who murdered her 18-month-old son with the help of her ex-boyfriend have been jailed for life. Sian Hedges, 27, and Jack Benham, 35...
A mother who murdered her 18-month-old son with the help of her ex-boyfriend have been jailed for life.
Sian Hedges, 27, and Jack Benham, 35, inflicted a ‘myriad of bruises’, broken ribs, a broken arm and a broken leg on Alfie Phillips before smothering him in a caravan near Faversham, Kent, in November 2020.
A court heard the injuries were part of a coke and booze-fuelled night in which the pair decided to punish Alfie with ‘violent discipline’.
Traces of cocaine were also found in Alfie’s body, though it’s not known how they got there.
By the time paramedics were called to the site, the boy’s body was ‘blue and floppy’ and it was ‘immediately apparent’ he had been dead for a while.
Hedges was sentenced to a minimum of 19 years’ jail, while Benham received a 23-year minimum term.
Speaking after Friday’s hearing, Alfie’s father, Sam Phillips, said: ‘They finally got what they deserved. We have got the justice in our hearts. Justice has been done.’
Prosecutor Jennifer Knight KC had told jurors there was ‘clear’ evidence that Alfie was ‘deliberately injured on more than one occasion’.
At one point, Hedges texted Benham to say Alfie had bitten her, after which Benham replied telling her to bite him back, jurors were told.
Benham later claimed the message was meant as a joke.
The abuse ended with an ‘assault perpetrated on him during the night of November 27 to 28, 2020, that led to his death’, the court heard.
Ms Knight continued: ‘Jack Benham and Sian Hedges were in the caravan together throughout the night.
‘Had either defendant not been joining in with the assaults, that defendant who was not part of it would have stopped the attack and removed Alfie Phillips from the caravan, and from the presence of the other who was carrying out these attacks.
‘The fact that this did not happen can only be because both defendants agreed that the assaults should take place.
‘They both agreed in meting out some sort of aggressive, violent discipline to Alfie that night which resulted in his death.’
Benham and Hedges denied harming Alfie, with Benham claiming he woke up with the toddler under his leg in bed and thought he had suffocated him.
The jury took 10 hours to find Hedges and Benham guilty by unanimous verdict.
