A boy who was left blind and brain damaged following an assault was so severely injured that he will eventually die from the damage inflicted upon him, a court has heard.
A harrowing victim-impact statement was read from the witness box of Newry Crown Court where the foster mother of the “young child” laid bare the consequences of the attack.
Christopher Fulton (35) was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and of two charges of child cruelty by wilfully neglecting the child.
His wife Amanda Fulton (36) was acquitted of grievous bodily harm with intent and one charge of child cruelty, she was however convicted of causing or allowing the child to suffer significant physical harm and a further charge of child cruelty concerning wilful neglect.
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Her ‘no’ was clear. She did not want to go home with him. Still he went on. And on
The court heard during the Fultons’ five-week trial last October how their victim was left blind and severely brain damaged as a result of Christopher Fulton’s attack which caused a litany of catastrophic injuries. But on Friday, the consequences of the couples’ action were set out in stark terms.
Describing a life filled with medical appointments, assessments and treatments, the boy’s foster mother told the court how the child “will never see the sunrise ... He will never see the toys that Santa left for him under the tree.” She told the court that even if he could see them, the boy is so damaged “he wouldn’t understand what they were”.
“He can only communicate his distress by crying, pulling his ears until they bleed, or banging his head with his fist and grinding his teeth ... I will never hear him say ‘I love you’,” she told Judge Peter Irvine.
“If the sky were made of parchment and I were to fill it with words of how much he means to us, it would still fall short to describe the love that we have for him,” she told the court.
Throughout the 15-minute testimony, Amanda Fulton was seen wiping away tears.
Her estranged husband – sitting 2ft away on the other side of a prison officer and the man the jury convicted of causing the injuries – sat stony-faced, his arms folded throughout.
Not even when the little boy’s foster mother recalled that doctors had told her the news that his injuries “are life-limiting” did Christopher Fulton show any emotion.
The court heard during the trial, and prosecuting KC Toby Hedworth again opened on Friday, how the child was unresponsive on the morning of November 7th, 2019, at home in Rockfield Gardens just outside Ballymoney but despite their concerns, neither Christopher nor Amanda Fulton called a doctor for three hours.
Initially, he was taken in an ambulance to the Causeway Hospital where a scan revealed a significant head injury. He was then taken to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children where he endured life-saving brain surgery.
It was there, the jury heard, that doctors discovered the true extent of his injuries including a fractured skull with associated bleeding to the brain and retinal bleeding, 27 rib fractures, fractures to both thigh bones, shin bones and wrist and a lacerated liver.
One paediatric consultant after another testified how the injuries were consistent with those that might be expected as a result of a high-speed car crash or of an infant being dropped “from several stories high”.
By their verdicts, the jury indicated certainty beyond reasonable doubt that Christopher Fulton struck the boy so hard he fractured his skull and lacerated his liver, that he shook him with such ferocity that all his limbs sustained fractures and at the time he was squeezing him so hard he broke 15 ribs.
Amanda Fulton’s defence counsel, Séamus McNeill, conceded that “I cannot gainsay” a suggestion by the judge that having witnessed her husband’s rough handling of the child “she was fully aware of the potential aggression that copied be directed at the victim”.
Mr McNeill told the judge, however, that the “reality of life” was that she could not simply walk out of the home she shared with her co-defendant; “it would have been extremely difficult for her to do, if not impossible”.
Ken McMahon KC, on behalf of Christopher Fulton, highlighted he had no violent convictions in his past.
The judge warned that going by guiding cases and given the assessment that Christopher Fulton is a dangerous offender, his starting point in deciding the sentence is between 19 and 22 and a half years before he takes account of aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
Remanding the pair back in custody, he said he would deal with the case on April 4th.
