Toddler death: 'Cage' bed 'like something from hell' Published duration 10 October 2018

image caption Lauren Coyle and Reece Hitchcott deny manslaughter

A man who found his lifeless granddaughter in a "cage" bed has told a court it was "something that should be in hell".

Ellie-May Minshull-Coyle, aged 19 months, died in March 2017 in a flat she shared with her mother, stepfather and a lodger in Lostock Hall, Preston.

Sean Coyle went to the flat and found the toddler unresponsive in the bed.

Lauren Coyle, 19, Reece Hitchcott, 20 and Connor Kirby, 20, all deny manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court.

Post-mortem

Ellie-May was allegedly bound by her legs and across her chest and forced to sleep face down in the bed converted into a "monstrous cage", the jury has heard.

A post-mortem examination found Ellie-May died due to "forcible restraint by ligatures in a face-down position complicated by hyperthermia".

The bed Ellie-May slept in was allegedly turned into a "prison" by the child's stepfather Mr Hitchcott, of The Fieldings, Fulwood, Preston; with help from the lodger Mr Kirby, of Octavia Court, Huyton, Liverpool.

A week before her death, Mr Coyle told the court he and his wife Louise visited the flat, and Mr Hitchcott showed them the bed.

Mr Coyle said: "It had some kind of sheeting over it. There was a gap at one end so you could push it against the wall, so it became a prison for her.

'Assist sleeping'

"I thought, 'What the hell is this?"'

He said Mr Hitchcott told him it was to "assist" her getting into a sleeping pattern.

Mr Coyle said his wife told Mr Hitchcott to take it down as it was dangerous and the child could be smothered.

Ms Coyle, of Collins Road, Bamber Bridge; Mr Hitchcott and Mr Kirby have all denied manslaughter, causing or allowing the death of the child and two counts of child cruelty by "caging" the child and restraining her in the bed.

The trial continues.

Related Topics Huyton

Preston