Kemarni Watson Darby murder: Toddler holds mother’s hand in McDonald’s hours before he’s beaten to death
Drug dealer Nathaniel Pope, 32, found unanimously guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s son
CCTV cameras captured one of the final moments of a toddler’s life as he held his mother’s hand in a McDonald’s restaurant - just hours before he was beaten to death by her boyfriend.
Kemarni Watson Darby died after being found lifeless and with 34 injuries at his home in West Bromwich on 5 June 2018.
Drug dealer Nathaniel Pope, 32, was found unanimously guilty of the three-year-old’s murder at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.
Alicia Watson, 30, was cleared of murdering her son but found guilty of causing or allowing the child’s death.
In video footage shown in court, Watson can be seen holding Kemarni’s hand as the pair walk into a McDonald’s restaurant at about midday on the day he died.
Kemarni appears to point at something in the distance as he tries to get his mother’s attention while the pair queue at the food counter.
Watson then pays for their food before picking up the toddler and carrying him out of the fast-food restaurant.
Other footage shows the mother and son walking to and from a medical centre appointment, where Watson claimed the youngster had a stomach bug.
The pair were also captured arriving back at their flat, where paramedics later rushed to shortly before 4pm following reports he had gone into cardiac arrest.
A four-month trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard Kemarni suffered fatal abdominal injuries at his mother’s flat, where he lived with Pope.
The prosecution claimed Kemarni was fatally assaulted at the flat and that he had been subjected to previous abuse.
Watson told the court she had never harmed her son and that she took him to see a nurse just hours before his death, genuinely believing he was sick.
Pope previously told the court he did not see or hear the alleged assault that killed Kemarni.
Pope, of Wolverhampton, and Watson, of Handsworth, Birmingham, were also convicted of a single count each of child cruelty to Kemarni between 1 May and 5 June 2018, relating to the infliction of rib fractures and an abdominal injury prior to the fatal injury.
They were also separately convicted of two further counts of child cruelty in relation to other children.
The pair will both be sentenced at a later date.
Following the verdict, it emerged Pope had previously launched a brutal attack on a young mother on a London bus in 2011.
Pope repeatedly smashed the victim’s head into a handrail, dragged her off the bus by her hair and kicked her as she lay on the pavement.
Details of the assault were kept from the jury after he claimed they were “markedly different” to the facts surrounding the killing of Kemarni.
Additional reporting by Press Association