Baby killer Daniel Gunter was a cross-dresser who drugged and abused a former lover, the Mail has learned.
An ex-girlfriend told how she was used as a slave during a toxic relationship in which she spent four months living in a tent with the murderer before they were given a housing association flat.
The woman, now 29, told how Gunter abused her ‘physically, mentally and emotionally’ as the 27-year-old convicted of murdering Brendon Staddon in a special care baby unit, following a four-week trial. His latest girlfriend, Sophie Staddon, 21, was cleared of causing or allowing the death of a child.
The premature baby suffered ‘catastrophic injuries’ to his jaw, head, neck and legs at Yeovil District Hospital, Somerset, on 5 March 2024 after the pair were allowed near-unrestricted access to the baby – despite social services informing them before the birth that the child would be taken into care.
Gunter had also been repeatedly warned by nurses about removing the baby from his incubator and ‘overstimulating’ Brendon – causing the infant distress – in the days leading up to his death.
Jurors heard that while medical staff rushed to try and save two-week-old Brendon, Gunter and Staddon walked outside to have a cigarette – and were still loitering outside when police arrived to arrest them.
The shocking case leaves Somerset social services facing difficult questions about how Gunter and Staddon were allowed unfettered access to the baby, who was delivered at 33 weeks weighing 1.83kg at birth (4lb).
Jurors were told a decision had been taken a month before the February 20 2024 birth to immediately place Brendon into care.
Baby killer Daniel Gunter pimped an ex-girlfriend for sex in order to receive money for drugs, she told MailOnline
The father inflicted ‘catastrophic injuries’ to the head, neck, legs and jaw of newborn baby Brendon Staddon (pictured), jurors heard
Sophie Staddon (pictured) and Gunter left medics battling to save their baby so they could go outside to smoke
Staddon and Gunter left medics battling to save their baby so they could go outside to smoke.
Prosecutor Charles Row KC said that when a senior social worker informed the couple of that decision ‘they didn’t react to this at all’ and showed no emotion.
They were, he said, apparently ‘much more concerned about their housing situation and what he could do to help with that’.
The Mail’s enquiries into Gunter and Staddon’s background suggest little Brendon stood little chance around the pair.
A former schoolfriend of Staddon’s told how she began smoking cannabis at school to impress boys, and always appeared ‘vulnerable to being controlled’ by the opposite sex.
Meanwhile, Gunter’s ex told how she first met him when both were being housed in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, by a charity which supported young people with complex problems to help get them into work.
She said: ‘At the time I was doing a course with the Prince’s Trust and I wanted to complete it. But Dan got kicked out (of the charity accommodation) and persuaded me to go with him and opt out of the system.
‘My relationship with him was always abusive. Sometimes he would lock me in my room for seven or eight hours at a time and he controlled all the finances.
Staddon began smoking cannabis at school to impress boys, a source told MailOnline
She told how Gunter would lock her in a bedroom for seven or eight hours and controlled her finances
‘He was always doing drugs and constantly needed money for his habit. He would beg, steal or borrow it.
Staddon began smoking cannabis at school to impress boys, a source told MailOnline
Gunter’s ex-girlfriend told how he would lock her in a bedroom for seven or eight hours and controlled her finances
She said: ‘I tried on several occasions to break away as I knew he was no good for me.’
She said that on one occasion she fled to a friend’s home but Gunter tracked her down and persuaded her to go back to him.
‘If anything, the abuse got even worse because I had run away’, she added.
The woman claimed Gunter would ‘have sex with blokes for money which he would spend on drugs’, often cheating on her with ‘hook ups’ he found on gay dating site Grindr.
The former lover said that when they eventually parted, she had a ‘red flag’ marked against her name in police systems, meaning officers will respond immediately if she reports any contact from Gunter.
Gunter (pictured) controlled Staddon’s finances, ‘dictating who she could speak to and spend time with, what and how much she ate and when she smoked’, jurors were told
She added: ‘Nothing that guy is accused of doing would surprise me.
Gunter also controlled Staddon’s finances, ‘dictating who she could speak to and spend time with, what and how much she ate and when she smoked’, jurors were told
‘He has no empathy, no emotion and no control. He is paranoid and if he doesn’t get what he wants it all builds up and up until he explodes.’
She said Gunter self-harmed and would deliberately ‘drip blood down the stairs of the communal hallway’.
The final straw in their relationship came in September of 2021, she said, when Gunter attempted to strangle her.
As neighbours lobbied to evict the couple, Gunter was forced out and his former lover was allowed to take on the tenancy on her own.
Referring to Brendon’s brutal death, she said: ‘I have read what he (Gunter) was accused of doing to that little thing and I think he is capable of it all’, she added.
‘I think it’s her (Staddon) I feel sorry for. She looks so young and I have no doubt he was controlling her the way he controlled me. He’s sick.’
He was found guilty of murdering his two-week-old son in a special care baby unit in Yeovil, Somerset
A former neighbour of Gunter’s described seeing him stroll out of his house in a bright red wig and women’s clothes.
‘He would often cross-dress’, she said. ‘It was weird.’
Brendon died at Yeovil District Hospital (above), the court heard
‘Dan was obsessed with the police. He always wanted to be a police officer.
‘He used to go around wearing a bullet-proof vest. He didn’t need one but he thought it made him look like a policeman.
‘If ever there was anyone less likely to get into the police force it was him.’
The former girlfriend confirmed Gunter was obsessed with the police and kept a red wig, but said she had never seen Gunter cross-dress when he was with her.
When the relationship eventually ended, Gunter ended up back in supported housing where he met Staddon.
Brendon died at Yeovil District Hospital (above), the court heard
The trial heard that Staddon had admitted that Gunter had controlled when she could use the phone, part of a pattern of behaviour also picked up on by safeguarding professionals and relatives of the pair.
It saw the killer controlling Staddon’s ‘finances, dictating who she could speak to and spend time with, what and how much she ate and when she smoked’, jurors were told.
The Bristol Crown Court jury was told how the young couple had an on-off relationship and on occasion Gunter would be violent towards Staddon.
Mr Row said that before Brendon died, social services and Gunter’s family were worried about the ‘lack of emotional warmth’ the couple showed their child.
The couple were warned that the baby was going to be taken into care when he was well enough to leave hospital, the court heard.
On the day Brendon died, Staddon approached the nursing admin station to tell them Brendon was cold at about 4am, jurors were told.
Mr Row said: ‘Ms Staddon called out to Mr Gunter, ‘I don’t know if he is alive or not’.
‘Mr Gunter said, ‘he’s fine, babe, he’s fine’.
Staff found the ‘limp and lifeless’ baby lying in his cot with his baby grow open.
While nurses began CPR, Gunter and Staddon went outside for a cigarette and never returned to check on Brendon’s condition, the prosecutor said.
A consultant neonatologist told jurors Brendon would have been dead for at least 30 minutes before his parents raised the alarm.
Despite being seven weeks premature, Brendan was doing well and would have been expected to go on to have a normal life, jurors heard.
