'Evil' father shook baby to death

Two-year-old Chelsea suffered terrible injuries

A man who shook his two-year-old daughter to death has been jailed for life for murder.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that Chelsea Brown was shaken so violently by her father Robert that her injuries were similar to those of a victim of a high speed road crash.

She was murdered just months after social services allowed her to live with Brown, who had a history of violence toward children.

Robert Brown had a history of violence towards children

Police described the 34-year-old as an "evil" man who "tortured his child, putting her through hell".

As well as murder, Brown was also convicted of cruelty towards the girl in the months leading up to her death and was given a four-year sentence. He denied both charges.

Her mother, Maria, 26, admitted cruelty and was jailed for 18 months.

Brown was convicted of killing Chelsea in December 1999 while the family were living at Godfrey Drive in Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire.

The court heard how she lived with her grandmother after social services were worried she may be at risk from her father.

Anyone who heard the evidence in the court will understand the abuse was as bad as it gets

Det Insp Sam Slack

He had offences stretching back to 1984 when he was convicted of slapping his 16-month-old nephew on the bottom.

But when the grandmother refused to take her granddaughter back after a weekend visit, social services allowed Chelsea to remain with her parents.

'No regret'

Brown's wife told police her husband would regularly slap the child, leaving her with numerous bruises.

He would throw her around and even "made her eat her faeces if she soiled herself", she said.

She telephoned for an ambulance on the evening of 5 December 1999 after her husband said he found Chelsea collapsed.

Paramedics found her dressed only in a nappy and she was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham where she died the following day after her life-support machine was switched off.

Doctors who examined her said head injuries they found were among the worst of their kind ever seen and told the court they were identical to those found in a victims of a car accident.

'Difficult case'

The judge, James Hunt, described Brown as a man who showed no remorse or regret and had attempted to shift the blame for Chelsea's death onto his wife.

The court heard she was of limited intelligence and had been threatened by her husband.

The judge said that did not absolve her from having conspired with him to cover up from social workers what was happening to Chelsea.

Speaking after the verdict Detective Inspector Sam Slack, who helped in the investigation, said: "This was a difficult case for everyone involved that led to a very thorough investigation.

"Anyone who heard the evidence in the court will understand the abuse was as bad as it gets. That it was going on over a period of months is absolutely appalling."