MOTHER AND BOYFRIEND ACCUSED OF MURDERING TWO-YEAR-OLD GIRL

Alexandra Walker, aged 25, and Harrison Simpson, aged 22, stand accused of murdering and sexually assaulting two-year-old Isabelle Welsh at a home in Thornaby, Teesside. The child suffered 21 broken bones in the weeks before her death, Teesside Crown Court heard. Isabelle collapsed at her home on Hartington Close on 13 September and was taken to hospital, where she died in the early hours of 14 September. Both defendants deny murder, allowing the death of a child, sexual assault and child cruelty.

The prosecution alleges that Isabelle suffered a "massive head injury" consistent with violent shaking and her head being struck against a hard surface. Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told the court that the child was covered in bruises to her head, neck, abdomen, back and private parts when paramedics found her. The couple had begun their relationship the previous summer, and Simpson spent considerable time at Walker's two-bedroom home with the toddler. The prosecution case states that both defendants had "ample opportunity" to harm the child and must have been aware of the abuse occurring in such a confined space.

The prosecution outlined that Walker took her daughter to a GP and hospital 11 days before her death, when medical staff identified a fractured leg. Despite concerns raised by some medical professionals, Isabelle was discharged back into her mother's care. The prosecution contends that this leg fracture, like the fatal head injury, was not accidental but part of what it describes as a sustained campaign of violence against the child.