A mother alleged to have murdered her daughter has told a jury how the toddler was left alone with her co-accused ex-boyfriend in the days leading up to her death. She also said that in the time between when the toddler died and the couple split up he was distant and cold.
Abigail Leatherland, 26, formerly of Liskeard continued her evidence at Truro Crown Court on Tuesday morning (March 26).
Leatherland and former partner Tom Curd, 31, of Watford, stand accused of several charges in relation to the death of Leatherland’s 22-month-old daughter Eve in October 2017.
Throughout the trial the jury has been told how Eve suffered a catalogue of fractures in the week leading up to her death, injuries said to have been inflicted on at least two separate incidents.
Eve eventually died of a codeine overdose after paramedics had been called and, according to the prosecution, found her already dead.
Eve Leatherland murder trial
Leatherland and Curd both face charges of murder, manslaughter by gross negligence and causing or allowing the death of a child.
Leatherland had started giving her evidence on Monday but returned to the witness stand on Tuesday morning where she gave her chronological account of the days leading up to her death to her barrister Richard Smith, QC.
Discussing her version of events on Monday, October 2, 2017, (Eve died on the Thursday), Leatherland said she had taken her son L (Cornwall Live has chosen to withhold his identity) to nursery and left Eve with Curd.
When asked why she didn’t take Eve, she replied: “She wasn’t very well. She was very pale, sleepy and she’d been sick.”
When Leatherland returned she said that Eve was in bed, Curd telling her that Eve had been sick.
Leatherland described how she was eager to let Eve sleep as much as she could in the hope it would make her better but she awoke when they were visited by a landlord who came to fix a light and she immediately threw up.
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After Leatherland went to fetch L from nursery she said she found her in bed again. Eve was said to have been ill a couple of weeks prior to her death but her condition improved when Curd returned to Watford for a week.
She said: “I thought it was the viral infection again. I didn’t think it was odd that she’d got better then gone downhill again as I’d experienced it with L. He was poorly before, then got better then got worse again when he had a viral infection.”
Moving on to Tuesday, October 3, Leatherland said her daughter was still poorly and her bed had been stripped because it was covered in sick. She added that Curd had again been left alone with Eve whilst she did the nursery runs.
On Wednesday, October 4, Leatherland said she received a video of Eve downstairs from Curd at around 10.28am, followed up by a text warning her not to disturb Eve when she woke up. She claimed that Eve was in bed when she got up.
When Leatherland got back from a nursery trip she said that Eve managed to have some chicken soup, the first thing she’d kept down in a while.
She said: “I thought it was a good sign she was eating as it meant she was getting better. When I finished I lay on the sofa stroking her hair and she fell asleep.
“She was very pale but had been very pale all week.”
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Leatherland says after returning from nursery Eve was again in bed and that that night she went to bed suffering from back pain whilst Curd played on the Xbox games console.
She added that she intended to see how Eve was in the morning before deciding whether to take her to the doctors. She claimed that Curd got up in the night but she stayed in bed.
Mr Smith put it to Leatherland that it was around this time period that Eve suffered a number of injuries, Leatherland denying inflicting any of the fractures herself or having any knowledge of them.
Moving on to the day of Eve’s death (Thursday, October 5), Leatherland said she got up at 10.30am but again wasn’t feeling great, suffering from back pain again and feeling very tired.
Leatherland claimed she then went downstairs after poking her head around the corner into the children’s room, describing how she saw Eve asleep on her back.
The defendant then gave details of a further conversation with Curd on the morning of Eve’s death.
She said: “When I got up Tom told me he’d given Eve Coco Pops, she ate some and that he saw L standing on Eve. He said she looked tired so he put her back to bed.
“I sat L down, told him he’d been naughty and that he shouldn’t do that to his sister then I just sat and watched TV with L.”
Leatherland was quizzed as to who next checked on Eve, replying that Curd had, 20 minutes later, reporting that she was fine and still sleeping.
She then alleges to have asked Curd to get Eve up to feed her, adding “he went upstairs and came back with Eve. I remember seeing her and she was white and not moving. Tom put her on the rug and started CPR and that’s when I rang 999.
“I was having a panic attack, it’s a bit of a blur to be honest. I passed the phone to Tom and rang mum because she lives up country and all I wanted was my mum.”
Leatherland says she wasn’t aware of a spot of blood on Eve’s bed or a wet wipe containing blood found on the floor.
She conceded that, in hindsight, she should have taken Eve to the doctors, but repeated that she thought Eve’s drowsiness, which can be seen in pictures presented to the jury, was just a viral infection and not anything to worry about.
Leatherland defiantly stated that she had no idea about the extent of Eve’s injuries and no reason to suspect she had codeine inside her.
She confirmed that she answered all of the police’s questions in every interview and was then asked to describe Curd’s behaviour between Eve’s death on the Thursday and when he left on the Sunday.
She said: “He was very distant, not consoling me and always in the bedroom on his own.”
Leatherland was then referred to her 2018 interview and asked why she then expressed that Curd was responsible.
She replied: “He had been alone with Eve and had the opportunity to do that. If I suspected he was hurting my children I would have got him out of my house and called the police.”
When being cross-examined by John Femi-Ola, QC, Leatherland denied ever giving Eve codeine.
She denied abandoning her child and said that although she knows now she should have taken Eve to the doctor, she was under the impression she was getting better.
Leatherland refuted claims she had lost her temper and said that Eve had been prone to outbursts throughout her short life so she knew how to deal with them.
Both Leatherland and Curd deny the charges against them. The trial continues.
