Four-month-old Elijah Shemwell had no hope of surviving when he was placed in the hands of his mother’s partner Carl Alesbrook, who has now been sentenced indefinitely for the baby’s murder
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Footage from Carl Alesbrook interview
Carl Alesbrook was tasked with taking care of his girlfriend’s four-month-old baby while she was at work – instead, he cut the tot’s life short in the cruellest of ways.
The teenager quickly grew tired of his parental responsibilities and in the weeks leading up to Elijah Shemwell’s sudden death, his vicious behaviour became a tragic sign of what was to come. Alesbrook, 19, was found guilty of murdering the four-month-old infant and today handed an indefinite sentence.
He caused whiplash-type injuries, bleeding on the brain and multiple bone fractures to Elijah seven weeks after meeting his mother in November 2021. The defendant denied murdering the little boy but was unanimously convicted, now facing a minimum term of 14 years, minus the time he has already served.
His ex-partner and Elijah’s mother, India Shemwell, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at the same court after she admitted two counts of child cruelty in December last year. Alesbrook had been minding the baby at the mother-of-one’s home in Belper, Derbyshire, while she was out at work.
Instead of protecting the little boy, Alesbrook lashed out in anger, inflicting serious injuries that prematurely ended little Elijah’s life. On January 2, 2022, the teen’s violence became fatal and the child suffered a cardiac arrest linked to a significant brain injury.
Days before little Elijah was rushed to hospital on January 2, Alesbrook, who had met Ms Shemwell just seven weeks before he killed her son, had sent her a Snapchat calling the baby “c**t” after she said she would buy some formula.
Alesbrook responded: “He is being a c***, he keeps spitting it out. He doesn’t need changing either, I checked 10 minutes ago.” The defendant, who denied ever being “unduly angered or irritated,” was found to have shaken Elijah on at least two other separate occasions, resulting in symptoms of brain damage or dysfunction and subdural bleeding.
The killer also caused rib and limb fractures to Elijah’s body, with 17 bruises found around his chest, back and stomach, consistent with being gripped by an adult. A trial at Derby Crown Court heard that mum Shemwell sent a video of Elijah unresponsive with a floppy arm to friends on Facebook to ask for advice on his condition on January 1.
The injuries were inflicted one to two days before his final shake, which left him struggling to breathe and with catastrophic brain trauma. Moments before his death, the little boy turned ‘pale and limp’ after being left alone with Alesbrook whilst Shemwell was out at the shops – which was proven with CCTV.
During a trial at Derby Crown Court, Prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC told jurors Shemwell had separated from Elijah’s father but “remained emotionally and sexually involved” with him, which she claimed may have caused Alesbrook “some understandable frustration at the uncertainty of the status of his relationship” with her.
The prosecution alleged that a toothache suffered by Alesbrook at the time may also have caused him to lose his temper with Elijah. Alesbrook denied that his tooth pain caused him to lash out at the baby and denied feeling jealous towards Shemwell’s ex-partner.
The convict also told defence barrister Mark Heywood KC that he would never shake a baby because he “knew what was right and what was wrong”. After showing the jury a mobile phone video of Elijah struggling for breath shortly before his admission to hospital, the prosecutor said the mum had dialled 999 at 10.33pm on January 2 and told the operator: “I’ve just come back from the shop and my four-month-old isn’t breathing very well and he’s gone pale and limp.”
The baby was taken by paramedics to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, and he died three days later on January 5. The court was told that in the opinion of a consultant forensic pathologist, “in addition to shaking, there had been impacts to the face, either as the result of blows being delivered, or Elijah striking a surface.” In short, the jury heard, the pathologist will say there is no plausible explanation for “the constellation of injuries present” other than from an assault.
Shemwell was described during her ex-partner’s trial as “a thoroughly inadequate mother” who both generally and specifically neglected Elijah and failed to seek prompt medical attention for him on both January 1 and 2. Prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC told the jury trying Alesbrook: “Whilst the prosecution heavily criticise Miss Shemwell for this neglect towards Elijah, it is not the prosecution’s case that she caused any of the injuries.”
Ms Marshall continued: “The prosecution is confident that a careful review of the evidence in this case puts this defendant alone with Elijah moments before the critical incidents… so as to make it inexplicable on the basis of coincidence that it was not this defendant who was responsible for causing Elijah’s injuries and death.”
Alesbrook, of Upper Greenhill Gardens, Matlock, denied causing any harm to Elijah but was unanimously convicted of both murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent by the jury at Derby Crown Court on Thursday. Shemwell, who was aged 21 at the time of the murder, admitted to two counts of child cruelty, including the fact that she did not dial emergency services more quickly after Elijah became unwell.
