The final few weeks of Ethan Ives-Griffiths’ short existence must have been a living hell.
The once smiley and chubby two-year-old was starved of food and water and repeatedly punched, leaving him severely dehydrated, underweight and covered in marks and bruises.
Harrowing video footage, filmed just ten days before his death on August 16, 2021, showed him walking with a strange, knock-kneed gait and falling over, barely able to hold up his own head, as he was bounced on a trampoline by older children in the scruffy back garden of his grandparents’ home.
By the time Ethan died, he was little more than skin and bone. One health professional said he was so gaunt he looked more like a 90-year-old man than a toddler.
A post-mortem found more than 40 visible injuries on his tiny frame, including fingerprint-shaped marks to his face, bruising on his arms, legs and chest, a chipped tooth and tears to his mouth and lip, which had a large chunk missing.
Other more serious internal injuries, however, including bleeding in his abdomen and brain, most likely caused by shaking, were the ultimate cause of his death.
Of course, the death of any child is desperately sad. But what perhaps makes little Ethan’s all the more tragic is that it occurred at the hands of his own grandparents and in full view of his mother – who did nothing to stop her son’s abuse.
Worse still, his death also took place under the noses of social workers, who were supposed to be closely monitoring his care.
Ethan Ives-Griffiths, the tragic two-year-old who was killed by his grandparents’ harrowing abuse. His mother, Shannon Ives, has also been found guilty of allowing his death
Once again – as Michael Ives, 47, and his wife, Kerry, 46, were convicted of Ethan’s murder and their daughter and Ethan’s mother, Shannon, 28, found guilty of allowing his death – the abject failure of the State to protect vulnerable children during the Covid-19 pandemic has fallen under the spotlight.
Like Star Hobson, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Logan Mwangi before him, Ethan Ives-Griffiths’ name will now be added to the tragic roll call of children murdered when home visits by social services were restricted during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
A safeguarding review is now being carried out into how he came to be killed, just five weeks after being identified as at-risk of significant harm and placed on the child protection register, in the ‘second summer’ of the Covid pandemic in August 2021.
Mold Crown Court heard that he was supposed to be seen – either by a health visitor or social worker – every ten days, but professionals struggled to contact his mother, who repeatedly cancelled or missed appointments, and lied or fobbed them off when they visited.
On one occasion, a social worker spent 43 minutes chatting to Shannon on the doorstep of her parents’ home in Garden City, Flintshire, North Wales, where she was living with Ethan. But, due to Covid restrictions, the social worker didn’t go inside or see the toddler who he was told was taking a nap.
In fact, in the 41 days between July 6, 2021 – when the decision was taken to place Ethan on the register – and August 16, when he died, he was seen in person just once.
All this, despite Ethan having been on the radar of social services since the day he was born, on April 27, 2019.
Back then, Shannon already had two older sons, aged three and 18 months, and was living in a hostel for homeless women following the breakdown of her relationship with on-off boyfriend, Will Griffiths, 29, who was Ethan’s father.
Over the next two years, however, the couple patched up their differences and got back together, also adding a baby daughter to their brood.
But an incident in early June 2021, when Shannon called police to the couple’s home in Mold, North Wales, would ultimately seal Ethan’s fate.
CCTV footage shows Michael Ives lugging the young boy by the collar of his shirt in the garden
Officers arrested Mr Griffiths for controlling and coercive behaviour and told Shannon that she and the children had to move out for their own safety.
She initially went to stay with her sister, but living in a cramped, two-bedroomed flat with her four children was impractical so, with nowhere else to go, she reluctantly made the decision to move back in with her parents. But the move, on July 16, was problematic.
Shannon told the trial that she first left home at 16 because, from the age of four, she was ‘hit on a daily basis’ by her father – who was also physically abusive to her seven siblings.
Michael kept reptiles as pets and on one occasion dropped a box of live locusts on her, she said. He also often called her names, referring to her as a ‘slag’. She said she was ‘petrified’ of him.
‘We would get punched (and) kicked, we would get a belt used on us,’ Shannon said.
Social worker Joanne Price said Shannon told her about her ‘horrible’ parents and chaotic upbringing, which was documented in her record.
Ms Price claimed she would never have allowed Shannon and Ethan to move in with them if they had still been in her caseload in July 2016.
But, by then, Ms Price had left her role and one of her colleagues, Michael Cornish, instead took on Shannon and Ethan’s case.
Early that month, on July 6, 2021, a decision was taken to place Ethan on the child protection register – a move which was finalised on July 19.
Three days later Mr Cornish visited Shannon and Ethan at Michael and Kerry’s home for the first time. Mr Cornish said Ethan was small and shy and didn’t speak at all during the visit.
He claimed he witnessed a ‘subtle’ dip in the toddler’s demeanour when Michael spoke about him. Kerry told Mr Cornish that Shannon couldn’t stay with them for ‘longer than two weeks’ and urged him to help her find alternative accommodation.
That was the last time any professional saw Ethan alive.
Over the next three weeks he left the property only twice and was subjected to serious ‘pain, distress and misery’ which culminated in his murder.
CCTV footage from cameras trained on Michael and Kerry Ives’ back garden, that was played to the court, showed Michael ‘roughly’ picking up a visibly skinny Ethan by his arm ‘like a bag of rubbish or a rag doll’.
During the video, taken on August 4, the toddler was also seen walking unsteadily, seemingly unable to hold himself up and falling flat on his face on a trampoline, as his mother and another older child bounced around him. Michael was also seen gesturing with a closed fist to the older boy to punch Ethan.
Experts who viewed the footage said the toddler’s behaviour suggested he had already sustained an injury to his brain by this date.
The following day, at about 3pm, Mr Cornish tried to visit for a second time but Shannon lied and told him she had Covid and couldn’t go inside.
Ethan’s grandparents Kerry Ives, 46, and Michael Ives, 47, have been found guilty of murdering the toddler and will receive life sentences in October
She and her mother spoke with the social worker for more than 40 minutes on the doorstep, but when Mr Cornish pushed to see Ethan, Kerry claimed he was asleep and refused to wake him from his nap.
Four days later, on August 9, Shannon’s health visitor Ellie Jones contacted Mr Cornish because she was worried that she hadn’t managed to speak to her for ten days. Shannon had missed an online video call with various health professionals the same day, saying she was too ill to attend.
Ms Jones and Mr Cornish went to the house together three days later, but there was no one home. On the same day Mr Ives was again seen on CCTV roughly carrying Ethan by his arm and punching him twice as he put him into his car seat.
Shannon cancelled another meeting with Ms Jones at the last minute the following day, telling the health visitor that Ethan was poorly.
Later, on August 13, the toddler collapsed and lost consciousness for the first time, before coming to ten minutes later.
Despite this, nobody sought medical help for Ethan – a decision one doctor told the court was ‘incomprehensible’ and a ‘dereliction of parental responsibility’.
Instead, Michael and Kerry, who claimed she couldn’t work because she suffered from fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, took Ethan shopping to Tesco at a retail park nearby.
By then, Shannon said, she suspected her son was being starved and abused by his grandparents. She said she had dressed her son for the first time in weeks and was shocked at how much weight he had lost and confronted her parents about bruising to his legs.
They claimed he was just clumsy and had ‘walked into the door’ and threatened her that he would be taken into care if she tried to take him to see a doctor.
Shannon cried in the witness box as she described how her father would shout at her son all the time and smack him. She described how he would make Ethan stand with his legs open wide and his hands on his head for up to two hours – sometimes in the middle of the night – if he kept his grandfather up or misbehaved.
‘There they were, being violent to a little boy who had done nothing at all,’ she said.
One juror wiped away tears as details of Ethan’s injuries were read to the court. The jury was also shown a text message Michael sent to his daughter, saying: ‘Ethan needs to learn the hard way.’
Shannon said Ethan was scared of his grandfather, who would often remove food from her son’s mouth with his fingers on the pretence that he was ‘choking’ and do the same with his beaker, claiming he was ‘drinking too fast’.
The mother-of-four, who is of low IQ and needed an intermediary with her in the dock to help her follow the trial, said she was ‘ashamed’ she’d turned a blind eye to the abuse but claimed she was also ‘too scared’ to stand up to her parents.
‘I should have done better,’ she told the jury. ‘I should have told my mum and dad to back away.’
At 9.40pm the following evening, on August 14, Ethan was watching television with his grandparents when he collapsed and fell unconscious again. Shannon was upstairs on her phone and Kerry shouted for her to come down quickly.
But instead of dialling 999 immediately they Facetimed another of Kerry’s daughters and waited 18 minutes before calling an ambulance.
Overwhelming medical evidence presented to the jury showed that Ethan, who never regained consciousness and died in hospital two days later, had likely been vigorously shaken and suffered a fatal blow to the head in the moments before.
Michael, who was previously employed at a B&M Bargain store but gave up his job to become his wife’s full-time carer, denied harming his grandson and instead claimed Shannon was ‘always’ smacking Ethan. He said she was quick-tempered and he’d once overheard her telling Ethan: ‘You need to f*** off in care, you little b******.’
Shannon Ives says she was ‘too scared’ to stand up to her parents and was ‘ashamed’ she’d turned a blind eye to the abuse
Kerry, who once lied about being diagnosed with cancer to get some ‘peace and quiet’ from her own family, also claimed she saw Shannon ‘clap’ Ethan around the head.
Shannon denied hitting Ethan, but other relatives gave evidence that they’d seen her tell him to ‘shut up’ and place him ‘forcefully’ in his cot when he was upset. She also appeared unconcerned and more interested in rolling a cigarette or looking at her phone after Ethan collapsed, they said.
In the end, the jury realised Michael, Kerry and Shannon – who were also found guilty of child cruelty – had all told lies and convicted them of the charges laid against them.
Following the verdicts, Mr Griffiths, who the Mail understands was never prosecuted in connection with the domestic incident, said his son could ‘rest in peace’ now ‘justice has been served’.
‘Unfortunately, I did not get much time with Ethan, but the time I did have was precious,’ he said. ‘He will never be forgotten and will always live on in our hearts and memories.
‘He will be remembered for the smiley, outgoing, loving child that he was.’
A spokesman for Flintshire Council said they were co-operating with the independent child practice review being carried out by the North Wales Safeguarding Board into Ethan’s case.
‘Ethan’s tragic death has shocked and appalled the community of Flintshire and it is inconceivable that his young life was taken by those who should have protected him,’ he said.
‘Our thoughts remain with all those who loved and supported Ethan during his short life.’
Mr Justice Martin Griffiths warned Michael and Kerry they would be jailed for life and Shannon was also looking at a ‘substantial’ prison term when he sentences them in October.
