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Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
Stephanie Colderick

The chilling facts that emerged from Channel 4's 24 Hours in Police Custody documentary on an 11 week old baby's death

Cold to the Touch, a special two episodes of the Channel 4 show 24 Hours in Police Custody, showed the investigation into the horrific murder of baby Teddie Mitchell who was just 11 weeks old when he was killed.

In 2019 Teddie Mitchell was murdered by the man who believed himself to be Teddie's father, Kane Mitchell, when his head was smashed against a hard surface.

You can read more TV news here.

Teddie sustained serious injuries and died in hospital 10 days after being admitted for the head injury and the show has real footage from the investigation.

The footage includes interviews with Kane and Lucci Smith, Teddie's mother, their arrests, and how detectives tried to prove Kane's guilt.

In February 2021 Kane was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for the murder of Teddie and Lucci was handed a two-year community order for neglect and cruelty to a child.

It has been described as "horrific to watch" with people who commented on the programme saying they "can’t believe we have people so evil living amongst us".

One person said: "24 Hours in Police Custody is breaking my heart. Some people do not deserve to be parents. Can’t stand this guy's crocodile tears."

There are many horrific and chilling details to this case from the brutal murder to parts of the lengthy investigation.

1. Teddie was killed by Kane squeezing him and striking his head against a hard surface

Kane Mitchell murdered Teddie by striking him against a hard surface and squeezing him and a postmortem showed Teddie died with a fractured skull, broken ribs, and a broken spine.

He was just 11 weeks old and died after 10 days of treatment in hospital. The injuries took place while Teddies' mother, Lucci, was taking her other children to school.

Kane Mitchell (left) was sentenced the minimum of 18 years in prison and Lucci Smith (right) was given a two year community order (PA)

2. Lucci did not call 999 until 3pm later that day

Despite realising that Teddie was not well when returning from the morning school run Lucci did not call 999 until she had collected her children from school in the afternoon at 3pm.

First Lucci called the doctors at 2.30pm who told her she needed to ring 999 straight away but she did not do this until 3pm when Teddie had stopped breathing.

3. Kane was arrested for domestic abuse during the investigation of Teddie's death

During the investigation into Teddie's death, Kane was arrested for domestic abuse towards Lucci after neighbours heard them arguing and saw him grab Lucci by the throat and hold her against the wall.

Although Lucci at the times denied the claims that Kane abused her after interviews with the police she admitted Kane had physically abused her in the past. However, she held onto the belief he would never hurt Teddie or her other children.

4. Lucci's other children heard and witnessed the domestic abuse

As part of the documentary an interview with one of Lucci's older children was played where the child said that Kane had hit them and that they had seen Kane abuse Lucci.

5. The neighbours were scared of Kane

Before the murder, the neighbours had often reported Kane to the police for his abuse towards Lucci and one neighbour admitted she felt "intimidated" by Kane and that it "frightened" her.

6. Kane was not Teddie's biological father

It was revealed in the investigation through DNA testing that Kane was not Teddie's biological father, something Lucci said Kane had always worried about.

Both Lucci and Kane broke down when told the news and Kane became very emotional weeping and sobbing.

7. Kane was rude and disrespectful to the police throughout the investigation

Kane often lost his temper at the police during the investigation, swearing at them and shouting as well as being demanding and uncooperative.

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