A TEEN has been found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s baby son after branding the tot a “c***” in chilling messages.
Carl Alesbrook shook four-month-old Elijah Shemwell on at least three separate occasions just weeks after meeting his mum India.
The baby, who had been born premature, suffered whiplash-type injuries at the monster’s hands – including rib and limb fractures and brain damage.
Alesbrook, 19, has now been convicted of murder following a trial at Derby Crown Court.
Jurors heard the teen had met Elijah’s mum India Shemwell just seven weeks before the horror in November 2021.
Shemwell, who was aged 21 at the time but is now 23, admitted to two counts of child cruelty – including the fact she did not dial emergency services more quickly after Elijah became unwell.
Alesbrook, who was 16 at the time, had been “consumed by jealousy” over her relationship with the baby’s dad as the pair remained “sexually involved”.
On one occasion, he sent chilling Snapchat messages to India while looking after Elijah alone.
He wrote: “He is being a c***, he keeps spitting it out. He doesn’t need changing either, I checked 10 minutes ago.”
Days later on January 2, 2022, India phoned 999 to report she had returned home to find her son “pale and limp”.
He was rushed to hospital but sadly couldn’t be saved and was declared dead shortly after.
While Elijah was being treated,
After Elijah had been taken to hospital, Alesbrook, who was “high” on cannabis at the time, texted his mum saying he was “absolutely f****d”.
A post mortem revealed Elijah had been shaken on at least two previous occasions before the fatal attack, which caused brain damage and rib and limb fractures.
The baby suffered catastrophic head injuries during the final assault.
A consultant forensic pathologist found that “in addition to shaking, there had been impacts to the face, either as the result of blows being delivered, or Elijah striking a surface”.
Opening the case, prosecutor Vanessa Marshall KC said mum India was a “thoroughly inadequate mother to Elijah” but had not caused his death.
She added: “You will hear how Miss Shemwell used to leave Elijah unattended and isolated in another room for large periods of time, whilst she was probably concentrating on her own needs and smoking cannabis.
“But where her neglect was the most manifest and ultimately led to Elijah’s death was that on too many occasions, she left her four-month old baby, in the sole care of this defendant, who on any view, as a 16-year-old lad, with little, if any, experience of looking after babies, should not have been given such a responsibility.
“However, whilst the prosecution heavily criticise Miss Shemwell for this neglect towards Elijah, it is not the prosecution’s case that she caused any of the injuries.”
Alesbrook denied GBH with intent and murder.
