A toddler died after suffering fatal head injuries when she was vigorously shaken, medical experts tell murder trial.
Maya Chappel suffered bleeding to her brain, spinal column, and eyes after the two-year-old was left in the care of her mother’s new partner.
Michael Daymond is accused of murdering the County Durham toddler while her mother, Dana Carr, was at work.
Teesside Crown Court heard from two medical experts who both confirmed that the injuries Maya suffered were not caused by an accidental fall but from rapid and vigorous movement on her head and neck.
Dr Daniel du Plessis, a Forensic Neuropathologist, examined Maya’s brain and spinal and he provided a specialist report for the jurors on the traumatic brain injury sustained by the toddler.
He said Maya's brain showed very severe damage due to blood loss and starvation of oxygen, which was 'unsurvivable'.
The doctor says Maya's spinal cord also suffered a lack of oxygen and blood - explaining why she was floppy and unable to move – when paramedics were treating her.
Jurors heard how the two-year-old suffered swelling to the brain after she suffered such severe damage due to a lack of blood and oxygen.
The specialist said the evidence of blood around the spinal column 'substantially increases the burden of evidence that it was a non-accidental event'.
He added that it would have been caused by excessive forwards and backwards movement.
Cross examining the witness, Nicholas Lumley KC, representing Daymond, asked whether there is any evidence of blunt force to the head. Dr du Plessis confirms that there was no evidence of an impact to the head.
The barrister asked whether forceful shaking could have caused the injuries to Maya. 'Yes, it would," he replied.
And Dr Jo McPartland, a paediatric pathology expert, who examined the toddler’s eyes told the jury that the level of bleeding could not have been caused by an accidental fall.
The doctor said that the bleeding could have been caused by rapid movement of the head – in a backwards and forward motion.
She says the acceleration and deceleration of the head could tear the blood vessels at the site of the optic nerve and it would have required ‘excessive force’ to inflict the injuries.
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Earlier in the trial, jurors heard how Maya suffered significant head injuries on September 28 last year and despite their best-efforts medical staff, she died two days later without ever regaining consciousness.
Daymond, formerly of Shotton Colliery, County Durham, has pleaded not guilty to murder and a second charge of cruelty to a child.
Twenty-four-year-old Carr, also formerly of Shotton Colliery, denies child cruelty and allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
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