Yahoo Finance Man, 36, found guilty of murdering partner's two-year-old son
A 36-year-old man has been been found guilty of murdering his partner's two-year-old son at their home in Doncaster.
Martin Currie killed Keigan O'Brien at the home they shared with the boy’s mother Sarah O'Brien, 33, in January this year.
Sheffield Crown Court heard Keigan died from a bleed on the brain, having previously suffered a broken spine, ribs and arm.
Sarah O’Brien and Currie were both charged with murder and received a verdict on Tuesday.
A jury found him guilty of murder and her guilty of the lesser charge of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Currie was also found guilty of cruelty to a child between July 2019 and January 2020 by wilful ill-treatment or neglect causing unnecessary suffering or death.
Read more: Children who see or hear domestic abuse to be treated as victims under law, government announces
Both he and O'Brien will be sentenced at the same court later this week.
Prosecutor Jason Pitter QC previously told the court that Keigan had suffered a brain bleed and that over the previous weeks he had endured a broken spine, broken ribs and a broken arm due to twisting.
Professor David Mangham, a consultant pathologist, confirmed Keigan had suffered fractures to his spine, ribs and wrist weeks before his death.
O’Brien claimed she returned home on January 8 after taking Keigan’s siblings to school to calls from Currie to go upstairs.
She said she then saw the toddler on his bedroom floor and called 999.
Keigan was pronounced dead on January 9.
Katherine Goddard QC, defending O’Brien, said Currie had been trying CPR before police and paramedics did the same on their arrival and before Keigan was taken to hospital.
Christopher Tehrani QC, defending Currie, claimed Currie had confronted O’Brien when he had found Keigan much earlier that morning and that Currie had been prepared to concoct a story to save her.
Currie had told the court he would never hit a child and claimed he had never hit Keigan and that he had once been in love with O’Brien.
