The grandmother of tragic Lola James told of her guilt at taking the night off babysitting duties when the little girl was murdered.
Nicola James, 48, felt too ill to look after the child - who died in the care of mum Sinead and her drug-crazed boyfriend.
The heartbroken gran told us in an exclusive interview: “It’s a decision I will regret forever - if I was looking after her as usual she would still be here now.
“I feel really guilty, I was only 15-minutes away from where Lola was attacked at the hands of a monster.”
Lola was battered to death by Kyle Bevan, facing a life sentence after being found guilty of murdering the loveable toddler last week.
Nicola’s daughter Sinead James, 30, who was sleeping at the time of the fatal attack, is expected to be jailed after a jury convicted her of allowing Lola’s death.
A murder trial heard Lola had 101 scratches and bruises on her tiny body before suffering a catastrophic head injury which Bevan blamed on her tripping over the family’s pet bulldog and falling down stairs.
But Nicola says she never noticed a single mark on Lola while looking after her in the weeks leading up to the murder in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.
She said: “Since the trial I’ve spent hours looking at photographs and mobile phone videos of Lola - there are no marks on her.
“I bathed her every day and she was always running around naked like two-year-olds do.
“I looked after her the majority of the time, I would have noticed something.”
Nicola fears druggie Bevan, 31, must have inflicted the wounds over several days before the fatal attack in July 2020.
Nicola said she met Bevan just once during his brief relationship with mother-of-three Sinead during the Covid lockdown.
But the caring grandmother never trusted him and knew her daughter had fallen into an abusive relationship.
She says social services would have been powerless because Bevan wasn’t on the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme register, known as Clare’s Law, which gives women the right to know if their partner has an abusive past.
Nicola said: “I never thought he was capable of murdering our lovely Lola.
“He is a coward, he’s never told us what really happened that night.”
The prosecution in the four-week trial at Swansea Crown Court claimed Sinead chose to “prioritise her relationship” with Bevan over her daughter’s physical safety.
Nicola is standing by Sinead and says she hopes her daughter gets the help she needs while behind bars.
The grandmother revealed she had been hounded by locals who accused her of being involved in the murder.
She said: “I’m being trolled on Facebook by people who say I should be going to prison as well because I knew what was going on but I knew nothing at all about it.
“People are pointing the finger, everyone loves a drama but I’m a good mother and grandmother.
“I’m not sleeping at night. I’m afraid to go out in case someone says something to my face.”
Nicola is calling for a change in the law to allow grandparents the right to have a say in the funeral arrangements of a murdered child.
Nicola spends her days remembering the fun times she spent with little Lola, who loved to watch the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? while eating her favourite Monster Munch snacks.
She said: “I smile when I think of the time when she asked if she could paint her fingernails.
“I said no but a few minutes later there was bright red nail varnish on her feet, her ankles, all over her hands, it was everywhere. She was very impatient and independent.
“She loved getting muddy in the garden, raiding the fridge for yoghurt and playing with all her friends - they were like a little pack together.”
Nicola is preparing to do a sponsored parachute jump in July in honour of Lola who she “misses every day”.
Bevan and James will be sentenced on April 25.
