A court in Northern Ireland heard how a young boy was attacked so violently that his injuries were consistent with a high speed car crash – his foster mum issued a heartbreaking victim impact statement
The foster mum of a young boy left blind and severely brain damaged after being viciously assaulted described the heartbreak of never being able to hear him say “I love you”. In what is a legal first in Northern Ireland, a harrowing victim impact statement was read verbatim from the witness box at Newry Crown Court.
The boy, who cannot be named, was the victim of a shocking attack by Christopher Fulton, 35, and Amanda Fulton, 36. Following a five-week trial last October, Mr Fulton was found unanimously guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and two charges of child cruelty by wilfully neglecting the young victim.
Mrs Fulton was acquitted of GBH with intent and one charge of child cruelty but was unanimously convicted of causing or allowing the child to suffer significant physical harm and a further charge of child cruelty in relation to wilful neglect. On Friday a judge said the pair will be sentenced on April 4.
At a pre-sentence hearing, the foster mum said: “If the sky were made of parchment and I were to fill it with words of how much he means to us, it would still fall short to describe the love that we have for him.”
The court heard on Friday how Christopher Fulton’s attack caused a litany of catastrophic injuries. The little boy’s foster mum told the court how her beloved foster son “will never see the faces of those who love him and care for him so deeply”.
“He will never see the sunrise. He will never know what the ocean looks like. He will never see the toys that Santa left for him under the tree,” she told the court, highlighting that even if he could see them, the little boy is so significantly brain damaged “he wouldn’t understand what they were”.
“He can only communicate his distress by crying, pulling his ears until they bleed, or banging his head with his fist and grinding his teeth. He lets me know he’s helping with smiles and giggles. He will never be able to ask me for sweeties or ask for just one more bed time story.
“I will never hear him say I love you,” she told Judge Peter Irvine KC, who heard that with medicines and food being given through a tube, his birthday cakes lie untouched and “he will never experience the satisfaction that comes from being hungry and getting to eat his favourite food”.
“As a result of his injuries, I will never have the privilege of teaching him how to ride his first bike. He will never be excited on Christmas Eve and wake me at 3am to see what Santa has left for him. He will never know what it is to get his first paycheck, his first car, his first home.”
During the foster mum’s 15 minutes of testimony, Amanda Fulton was seen repeatedly wiping away tears. Her estranged husband, sitting two feet away on the other side of a prison officer, sat emotionless throughout the hearing, reports BelfastLive.
The court heard how the boy was unresponsive on the morning of November 7, 2019. Initially he was rushed to Causeway Hospital where a scan uncovered a significant head injury, and he was then taken to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children where he endured lifesaving brain surgery. It was there, the jury heard, that doctors discovered the true extent of his life threatening injuries including:
- Fractured skull with associated bleeding to the brain and retinal bleeding
- 27 rib fractures
- Fractures to both thigh bones
- Fractures to both shin bones
- Fractured wrist
- A lacerated liver
Multiple paediatric consultants testified how the injuries were consistent with those that might be expected as a result of a high speed car crash or of an infant being dropped “from several stories high”, and were so serious that he would have died without medical intervention. The doctors all agreed that an incident involving blunt force trauma such as a punch or being struck against a hard surface like a wall or floor, as well as shaking with an adult compressing the rib cage, would be a possible explanation for the “non-accidental injuries”.
