Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden, who was found guilty of murdering their 10-month-old son Finley Boden, on Christmas Day 2020, have been jailed for life at Derby Crown Court with minimum terms of 27 and 29 years respectively.
The pair who told “a series of persistent lies” to win back and then brutally murder their son had a “sadistic motivation”, their sentencing hearing has heard. Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden are being sentenced at Derby Crown Court for what a prosecutor described as a “savage and prolonged” murder of their son, Finley Boden.
Finley died just weeks after being returned to his parents’ care by a Family Court at their filthy home in Holland Road, Old Whittington, near Chesterfield in Derbyshire. By the time of his death, the 10-month-old had sustained 130 separate injuries including bruises, broken and fractured bones, and burns, which prosecutor Mary Prior KC told the court on Friday were the result of “vicious and repeated assaults”.
Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples said: "Neither of you have shown any remorse at all for what you have done”, the judge said, as she handed down life sentences with minimum terms of 27 years for Marsden, and 29 years for Boden.
A juror from the trial pointed to the sky as the sentences were passed, while another wept and others smiled. All other charges were directed to lie on the file.
The judge said Boden says smoked cannabis from the age of nine and Marsden was drinking from the same age and smoking cannabis from the age of 10.
“Regular arguments were a feature of that relationship from the outset The judge said Boden had a “short temper” and could be “uncontrollably and aggressively angry” but Marsden was “quite capable of standing your own ground in arguments with Stephen Boden”.
“I am also sure that you were pushed and hit and verbally abused by Stephen Boden in your relationship with him,” the judge told Marsden. She said: “You both knew that as soon as anyone knew Finley was injured, he would be taken away from you and your family life.
“Having brutally assaulted Finley on at least two occasions, you continued to abuse him. You subjected your own baby son to unimaginable cruelty.”
The judge said Marsden and Boden “are both persuasive and accomplished liars” who “both knew Finley was really, really ill” in the days before his death.
In a statement from a relative of one of the defendants, read by Mrs Prior, they said that Finley had suffered “the most horrific abuse” and labelled his parents as “monsters”. The relative said: “I thought they had both changed.
“I was obviously wrong and they only showed us what they wanted us to see.“They acted together to inflict all his injuries and then hide him away and allow him to die in such an awful way.”
They added: “Neither of you have shown any remorse. We as a family have grieved, but you haven’t needed to, as you are both responsible for his death. We will never forget, or forgive, you both, and we will never forget Finley.
“While we will never forget Finley, I promise, we will forget you both. I can only describe you both as monsters for what you have done.”
Eight of the 12-person jury from the criminal trial have returned to witness the sentencing. The defendants have remained unmoving and silent throughout the hearing.
Defending Marsden, Andrew Vout KC said she was the “secondary party” to the murder of her son and referenced texts sent by Marsden to family members expressing concern over Finley’s welfare and Boden’s domestic abuse, as well as searches for emergency accommodation made before Finley died. He said: “It is plain in my submission that Miss Marsden’s feelings for Mr Boden ultimately overrode all else and I must accept that these were choices that she herself made, that the evidence in my submission clearly demonstrates that she was covering for Mr Boden because she was in his thrall.
“She was ill-equipped to deal with motherhood with an abusive partner. She was young, immature and had mental health difficulties of her own, and she was utterly incapable and unwilling, I accept, to recognise the help and assistance that was being offered by social services.”
He added: “That she was a victim herself of Mr Boden’s abuse in my submission is well made out on the evidence that we heard. It did not provide her with a defence, I don’t submit that it does, but it is inescapable that that was her situation at the material time.”
