Shannon Marsden seen “howling” on floor as medics battled to save baby

Shannon Marsden was seen “ripping her hair out in chunks” after being physically-removed from the resuscitate room when baby Finley Boden was rushed to hospital on Christmas Day, 2020.

A nurse told Derby Crown Court that after being told the toddler had died Marsden was seen “cradling him very gently” and kissing his face.

The baby had contracted sepsis after suffering 130 separate injuries including 57 fractures – breaks to his collar bone, shoulder, shin, thigh bones, pelvis and ribs and two burns in the days leading to his death.

Boden, 29, and Marsden, 21, both deny murder, cruelty to a person under 16 and causing or allowing the death of a child.

Giving evidence this week at Boden and Marsden’s trial, the nurse described how Finley’s mother blamed marks on the infant’s face on a dummy rubbing.

She added: “She said the baby had been unwell for three to four days – she said she told a social worker the baby was not right and had been giving him regular Calpol.

"She said ‘I wish I hadn’t listened to anyone – they kept saying the baby was Ok. The social worker said it was probably down to teething’.”

However, previously in the trial a jury heard that on December 23 a search was made on the phone Boden and Marsden shared for “symptoms of sepsis” on the NHS website.

While various news headlines uncovered in phone searches included “child killer is jailed for 21 years”, “tragic story of Derby mum who killed her baby” and “starved toddler dies from head injury four months after social worker returns her to parents”.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Doctor Sarah Dixon told the court the toddler suffered “repeated and escalating physical abuse on multiple occasions” in the weeks before he died.

Speaking about bruises found on Finley in hospital, she added: “Considering evidence of bruising in the context of other injuries, including fractures, I acknowledge that increases my index of suspicion that the bruises were due to impact trauma.”

The trial continues.