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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Abigail O'Leary

Mum's partner jailed for 25 years for horrific killing of her autistic son

A man who killed his partner's non-verbal two-year-old son after leaving him with horrific unsurvivable injuries has been jailed for 25 years.

Phylesia Shirley was found guilty of manslaughter over the death of Kyrell Matthews, who died in October 2019.

The defenceless tot went into cardiac arrest at his home in Thornton Heath, south London.

At the time of his death he had 41 rib fractures and was also discovered to have internal bleeding and a four centimetre cut to his liver.

Kyrell had suffered horrific beatings on a regular basis in the months leading up to his death, the court heard.

Shirley's boyfriend Kemar Brown was found guilty of his murder after the both stood trial at the Old Bailey. He has been jailed for 25 years.

Kyrell Matthews had 41 rib fractures to his little body when he died (Met Police)
Prosecutors say Kyrell was repeatedly struck over several weeks, with secret audio recordings capturing the violence (Met Police)

The cruel pair sat with blank expressions on their faces in the dock as they heard the verdicts.

Judge Mark Lucraft QC told them: "The court had to listen to some harrowing recordings that you made on your phone of the abuse carried out on your young boy.

"You should be utterly ashamed of what you have done."

Judge Lucraft then told Shirley: “You continued to leave him in Brown’s care including on the day of his death. In addition you were also mistreating Kyrell and used violence on him. There was significant mental suffering caused to Kyrell.

"This was not just an abuse of position of trust, this was a gross abuse of position of trust. He should have felt safe and secure."

Kemar Brown was found guilty of murder (Met Police)

Kyrell's grandfather Karl Matthews stating in his victim impact statement that they had not shown "any remorse for their actions".

Shirley, who is 24, had admitted allowing the death and allowing serious physical harm to a child but had denied murder.

Her then-boyfriend Brown, 28, had denied all three charges.

The toddler could be heard crying and screaming on distressing audio files taken from Shirley's phone and played to jurors during the trial.

Prosecutors say Kyrell was repeatedly struck over several weeks, with secret audio recordings capturing the violence.

A court sketch of Phylesia Shirley, and her partner, Kemar Brown, appearing at the Old Bailey (PA)

The court was shown heartbreaking new footage, Kyrell can be seen laughing and smiling at the camera just weeks before his death.

As he handed Brown with the life sentence, Judge Mark Lucraft QC said he inflicted a “truly shocking catalogue of injuries” upon two-year-old Kyrell.

He condemned him for the “sustained abuse” shown to the toddler, which was captured in various recordings spanning a three month period.

He told him: “You are heard to say ‘You have to ruin all the fun’. Those six words show your disregard for him and his life.”

Another video shows him in his mother's arms on his birthday as she blows out candles on a cake. Shirley can be seen smiling at him.

The Old Bailey heard victim impact statement that they had not shown "any remorse for their actions" (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The court had also heard that whilst Shirley was distressed and “hysterical” when Kyrell was declared dead, Brown, who was not the child’s father, remained calm and disengaged throughout.

Prosecutor Edward Brown QC told jurors at the Old Bailey: "Kyrell had his ribs crushed or broken by blows within the four weeks before October 20.

"At least one of the defendants plainly inflicted a significant number of injuries in at least five separate incidents in the four weeks leading up to ... Kyrell's death.

"The pain and distress in those four weeks when he was abused was brought vividly to the fore by those harrowing recordings.

"On October 20, his ribs were crushed once more - it killed him."

Police later found the secret audio files on Shirley's mobile phone, which were apparent attempts of the mum trying to catch Brown being unfaithful, but inadvertently captured the abuse, the prosecution said.

They included multiple audio files where it appeared Kyrell was hit repeatedly, with Brown saying "shut up", causing the toddler to cry and scream.

Jurors were not told that police had been called to an earlier domestic incident but no offences were identified and Kyrell was said to have appeared "safe and well".

A passer-by had alerted officers on July 17, 2019, after hearing shouting and screaming coming from their flat, with a female voice saying: "Stop hitting my face."

It followed an attack in May 2019 when Kyrell suffered a significant injury to the side of his face and spent five days in Croydon University Hospital.

The hospital carried out an investigation and found Shirley's explanation that the little boy had fallen off a sofa and hit his head on a highchair was "plausible", police said.

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