The Nottinghamshire father of a toddler murdered by her mother’s new partner says he wants to ‘rip off the head’ of her killer. Dean Bird travelled for 10 hours from his home in Mansfield to attend every day of the trial of Tom Curd in Truro, Cornwall. CornwallLive reports yesterday Curd was convicted of the murder of Dean’s 22-month-old daughter Eve Leatherland in October 2017. The court heard how he had repeatedly beaten the child, fracturing her skull and ribs, before giving her enough codeine to kill and adult. A murder charge against Eve’s mother, Abigail Leatherland, was dropped on Wednesday, but she has been found guilty of causing or allowing a child to die but not guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence. X-rays revealed Eve had suffered serious injuries at the home she shared with Leatherland and Curd in Liskeard. Eve was found to have suffered a number of injuries including a broken skull, broken ribs and a lacerated liver. Several of the fractures occurred in the same place as previous fractures, meaning Eve was subjected to identical assaults during the healing process. Her lifeless body was taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth but it was suspected that Eve had been dead for several hours before paramedics were called. Mr Bird has spoken to CornwallLive about his loss and the ordeal of having to look at Leatherland and Curd in the dock during the trial. Tattooist Mr Bird, who hadn’t seen Eve since she was 15 months old, said:… [Read full story]
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