A dad accused of murdering his two-week-old baby daughter has been found not guilty by a jury.
Darin Harvey, of Birch Road, Wardle, was accused of shaking his baby daughter Felicity-May Harvey at the home he shared with his fiancée and the baby's mother on Stirling Place, Heywood, on January 8, 2021. The 26-year-old denied the offence.
After days of deliberations the jury found Mr Harvey not guilty of murder, or of manslaughter. During the two-week trial at Bolton Crown Court prosecutors alleged that Felicity had suffered ‘catastrophic’ injuries after being shaken with an ‘abusive level of force’.
READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community
The prosecution, led by Tim Storrie KC, pointed to ‘inconsistent’ accounts Mr Harvey first gave to the police following his arrest in January 2021, compared to what he said to the jury at the trial. The prosecution said he went to see Felicity soon after his fiancée, Heather Connolly, had left the property just after 2pm, shaking her after going to feed her.
However, Mr Harvey consistently denied this, saying he was in the toilet until just before 2.30pm. He added that he went into the bedroom around 2.28pm, picked up Felicity, who was born with a cleft lip and palette, with ‘no concerns’ before looking at her and noticing she was ‘blue’ with her eyes rolling in her head.
Soon after this he called Ms Connolly, who was ‘luckily’ outside the house at the time, before they called the emergency services with the baby rushed to hospital. Felicity would tragically die three days later on January 11 at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.
In evidence, Mr Harvey said it was the ‘God’s honest truth’ that he did not kill his daughter. Defending Mr Harvey, James Mulholland KC, asked him questions about the events of January 8, with Mr Harvey saying “the world stopped at that moment” he noticed something was wrong with Felicity.
Mr Harvey added: "I wanted to help police and tell them everything I could. They wouldn't accept anything I was saying. I was scared and petrified, I was being bombarded with questions... the pressure was immense, I had no choice but to give them answers.
"The pressure and the way they were making me feel I was just talking and talking and just spoke when I didn't know an answer, I wasn't lying, I just didn’t remember." Mr Mulholland asked the defendant if he shook Felicity-May.
"Hand on my heart, no," he replied.
In cross-examination Mr Harvey told the jury: “I didn't shake her, I will say that until I've gone blue, I will put that on my gravestone. They (police) took advantage of a broken man. I'm telling you I did not shake her. I don't know how many times I have to say this.
"All I could think about was my baby... my heart was ripped into pieces, which the police couldn't care less about in those interviews. I was not trying to con the police at all, I wanted to help but they were practically torturing me."
Mr Harvey would also go on to accuse the baby’s mother, Ms Connolly, of causing Felicity the fatal injuries. He said: "She knew what she had done. She knew she fed her, she told two people she had fed her and something [has] gone wrong... she panicked and shook her. There's no other explanation - that's what happened."
After nearly a week of deliberations the jury was given directions by judge Robert Bright KC that they could make a majority verdict, returning a few hours later. Gasps of relief could be heard from the public gallery as the jury foreman delivered the not guilty verdicts.
For more of today's top stories click here.
READ NEXT:
Hit-and-run killer who left dad-to-be for dead in the road has sentence increased
Figures reveal scale of rape and violence reported at Salford's troubled Forest Bank prison
Illegal Curry Mile shisha bar has HUGE amount of cash confiscated
Lancashire Police will not face action over disclosing Nicola Bulley's personal details
