A man charged with murdering his grandson has told a court he had “no excuse” for holding the toddler “like a ragdoll”.
Michael Ives, 47, and his wife Kerry, 46, are accused of fatally injuring Ethan Ives-Griffiths when he lived with them at their home in Garden City, Flintshire, north Wales, before his death on August 16 2021.
The couple blame their daughter, Ethan’s mother, Shannon Ives, 28, for the two-year-old’s death, Mold Crown Court has heard.
On Monday, Ives was shown CCTV from the back garden of the house of him carrying the two-year-old by his upper arm on August 4 that year.
He said that after picking him up from a trampoline, he held him up to avoid nettles in the back garden.
Gordon Cole KC, defending Shannon Ives, asked him: “You held him like a rag doll, didn’t you?”
Ives replied: “Yeah.”
Asked why he had carried him in that way, he said: “No reason.”
He added: “There’s no excuse, I know.”
When Mr Cole asked if Ives had liked his grandson, he replied: “Yes, obviously.”
Earlier in the day, Ives told the court Shannon was “quick-tempered” and would hit her son after they both moved into the family home earlier that year.
He said on the evening of August 14 2021, Shannon had taken Ethan into the downstairs bedroom of the house to feed him and he later saw a red mark on the corner of Ethan’s eye.
When he asked his daughter where the mark had come from, she said “I’ve not f****** done it”, Ives told the court.
Later that evening, he was in the living room with his wife Kerry and Ethan while Shannon was upstairs on the phone.
He said: “I’ve stood Ethan up and as I’ve stood him up his legs have just gone.
“They’ve gone like jelly and he couldn’t stand up.”
He said Ethan went to fall backwards, so he reached out to grab his arms.
David Elias KC, defending Ives, asked him: “Had you hit him in any way?”
He replied: “No.”
Mr Elias asked: “Had you grabbed him?”
Ives said: “Only to stop him from falling backwards.”
He said he laid the toddler on the floor and rubbed his chest before taking him to the back door for fresh air.
Asked if he did anything to get help from the emergency services, he said: “No, I was trying to bring him round.”
Ethan was taken to hospital and died two days later with “serious, catastrophic head injuries”, the court has heard.
The jury has been told Ethan’s fatal head injury was caused by deliberate use of force, which may have included an element of forceful shaking.
Ives told the court that on August 13 2021, he was in the living room making a cigarette when he heard “contact” that “sounded like Shannon hitting Ethan”.
He said: “All I heard is a bang. I turned round and Ethan’s lying on the living room floor.”
He said Shannon had left the room and Ethan was unresponsive for a couple of minutes before he started to come round.
He added: “He sat up and seemed fine.”
Ives said Ethan’s mother would call him a “little bastard” and tell him “f*** off into care or live with your dad”.
He said: “I told her there was no need for that.”
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 will continue on Tuesday.
