The mum of an 18-month-old boy and her ex-boyfriend have been found guilty of murdering him Alfie Phillips was beaten to death and smothered in an attack by mum Sian Hedges, 27, and 35-year-old Jack Benham in his caravan near Faversham in Kent.
Alfie was found with a ‘myriad of bruises’, broken ribs, a broken arm and leg, and traces of cocaine in his body after the couple took the drug and drank whisky during the night of ‘violent discipline’.
His body was found ‘blue and floppy’ on the morning of November 28, 2020, and paramedics said it was ‘immediately apparent’ Alfie had been dead for some time.
The jury took 10 hours to reach a unanimous guilty verdict following a trial at Maidstone crown court. Both Hedges and Benham face life imprisonment for his murder.
On the night before Alfie died, Benham said the pair were drinking, chatting and watching YouTube videos that evening as ‘just normal’. But Ms Knight said: ‘It was all a lie, the truth is you and Sian were both present and involved in that assault, you and Sian both killed Alfie.’ Benham, of Hernhill, Kent, and Hedges, of Yelverton, Devon, will be sentenced on December 19.