A grandmother accused of the murder of a two-year-old has denied assaulting the child.
Kerry Ives, 46, and her husband Michael Ives, 47, are alleged to have been in the living room of their home in Flintshire, North Wales, with grandson Ethan Ives-Griffiths on August 14 2021 when he suffered a “catastrophic” head injury, leading to his death two days later.
Giving evidence at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday, she was asked by Owen Edwards KC, defending: “Did you assault Ethan on August 14?”
She replied: “No.”
Ives also denied seeing, helping with or encouraging an assault on that date.
She said she accepted medical evidence showed something happened to Ethan at the time of his collapse or in the minutes before it, but told the jury: “I can’t explain what happened because nothing did.”
The grandmother, who wiped her eyes with a tissue at points during her evidence, described Ethan as a “bubbly little child” and said he came to stay at their home in Garden City from about June 24 2021 for a few weeks, before going back to his mother – her daughter, Shannon Ives.
Shannon and Ethan then both came to stay at the house from July 16 until his death, the court heard.
Ives accepted all three of the adults neglected Ethan.
She said: “I’m ashamed of myself.”
Asked how her daughter behaved towards Ethan, she said: “She used to smack him, up the head.”
After Mr Edwards asked in what circumstances that would happen, Ives said: “He’d probably pissed her off, just by laughing at her if she told him off.”
She said on August 14 she noticed a red mark on Ethan’s face after he had been in the bedroom with his mother.
Ives said she did not see Shannon hit Ethan that day, but was later reminded of her defence statement in which she said she saw Shannon strike her son to his head as they walked to the living room.
She told the court she was in the living room with her husband that evening, while Shannon was upstairs, when she turned and saw Michael Ives catching Ethan.
Ives said: “Michael picked him back up and then he did it again so Michael lay him on the carpet.”
Asked how it looked, she said: “It was horrible.”
She said she shouted for Shannon, who came down from upstairs and later called her other daughter, Nicole, over Facetime, the court heard.
The accused said: “Nicole had gone through something similar with her son. I just needed some advice for what to do.”
She then rang an ambulance, but the court heard the time between Kerry Ives shouting for her daughter to come downstairs and phoning emergency services was 18 minutes.
Ives said: “I was panicking. I didn’t know what was going on.”
Kerry Ives, originally from Wolverhampton, accepted the way her husband carried Ethan, by his arm, in CCTV footage from August 4 2021, was “cruel”.
She said: “It wasn’t nice.”
Ives said at the time she did not see her husband holding Ethan in that way and denied the footage showed her watching as Ethan was carried from a trampoline in the back garden.
She said: “I was just staring, that’s what I usually do, just stare and glaze.”
Asked what she would have done if she had seen her husband carrying the toddler like that, she said: “I’d have told him to pack it in.”
She accepted she did see him lift Ethan over a railing by his arm in later footage which was shown to the court.
Gordon Cole KC, defending Shannon Ives, said: “Do you regret how Michael treated Ethan?”
She said: “Yes.”
When Mr Cole asked why she had not initially told the jury she had seen her husband carry Ethan like that, she said: “I can’t answer.”
She added: “I’m not protecting him.”
She accepted she did not tell her husband to stop handling the youngster in that way.
She told the court: “Nobody ever listened to me anyway.”
Michael and Kerry Ives, of Kingsley Road, Garden City, deny murder, an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a child, and cruelty to a person under 16.
Shannon Ives, of Nant Garmon, Mold, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a person under 16.
The trial was adjourned until Friday.
