Toddler died after being tied down in 'monstrous cage bed', court hears

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A toddler died after being tied face-down in a “monstrous cage bed”, a court heard.

Ellie-May Minshull Coyle was allegedly bound by her legs and chest and forced to sleep face-down in the bed – a purple Frozen bed, based on the Disney children's film – described in court as a "monstrous cage".

Mother Lauren Coyle, her partner Reece Hitchcott and their lodger Connor Kirby are all alleged to have known what was going on and are standing trial for manslaughter.

A post-mortem examination found 19-month-old Ellie-May died at a flat in Preston on March 23 last year due to "forcible restraint by ligatures in a face-down position complicated by hyperthermia".

Liverpool Crown Court heard Ellie-May would have tantrums when she did not get her own way.

Coyle, 19, sent a text message to Hitchcott, 20, reading: "I've smacked her loads."

In another text on March 8, she said: "I literally just feel like jumping in front of a train. I just feel down with this child constantly being naughty and I'm so stressed out it makes me feel dizzy."

In another message, sent on March 17, less than a week before Ellie-May's death, she wrote: "That child's f***ing woke me up screaming the whole flat down banging her head. Feel so knackered."

Speaking to the court on Tuesday, Coyle claimed Ellie-May was lying on her back, and not restrained, when she put her back into bed after she woke at about 7am on March 23.

Coyle said she fell back asleep and was woken when her father, Sean Coyle, visited the flat at about 9.25am.

Mr Coyle went into Ellie-May's bedroom with Hitchcott, but rang emergency services when he realised his granddaughter was not breathing.

Coyle told the court when Hitchcott took Ellie-May out of the bed she noticed what appeared to be a black Velcro strap around the toddler's ankles.

She said: "I said to Reece: 'Did you do this? Why would you do it?' And he said: 'I'm sorry."'

Coyle told the court the bed had been converted by Hitchcott. She said: "I did tell him that I didn't like it but I never told him to take it down.

"I asked Reece what it was for and he said: 'Give it a couple of weeks and Ellie will be in a routine and settling.’ So I just took his advice."

"I should have stood my ground and got Reece to take the bed down."

Coyle told the court Ellie-May, who she had with ex-boyfriend John Minshull, was her "world".

Coyle, of Preston, Hitchcott, of Preston, and Kirby, of Liverpool, have all denied manslaughter.

They also each deny a count of causing or allowing the death of the child, one count of child cruelty by "caging" the child in her bed, and another count of child cruelty by restraining her in the bed.

The trial continues.