Kemarni Watson Darby: Man convicted of murdering partner’s son, 3, after weeks of ‘horrendous cruelty’
A man has been convicted of murdering his partner’s three-year-old son after weeks of ‘horrendous’ cruelty.
Kemarni Watson Darby died after being found lifeless at his home in West Bromwich on 5 June 2018.
Alicia Watson, 30, of Handsworth, Birmingham, and her then-partner Nathaniel Pope, 32, of Wolverhampton, both denied murder and child cruelty charges.
Watson was cleared of murdering her son but found guilty of causing or allowing the child’s death.
Pope has been convicted of murder at Birmingham Crown Court today.
Described in court as “partners in crime, the pair blamed one another from the witness box. They also continued to live together for several months after Kemarni‘s death.
A four-month trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard Kemarni suffered fatal abdominal injuries at his mother’s flat, where he lived with Pope.
The prosecution claimed Kermani was fatally assaulted at the flat and that he had been subjected to previous abuse.
Watson told the court she had never harmed her son and that she took him to see a nurse just hours before his death, genuinely believing he was sick.
Pope previously told the court he did not see or hear the alleged assault that killed Kermani.
More follows
