Jew World Order

• CPS had felt there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute Lesley Dunford
• In 2009 East Sussex coroner Alan Craze demanded the case was revisited
• Lucy Dunford was found with bruises on neck and shoulder in 2004
• Jury convict her mother of inflicting fatal injuries on the three-year-old
• Three post mortems ruled youngster had died from asphyxia caused by the forced blockage of her airways

By
Leon Watson and Chris Parsons

PUBLISHED:

15:10 EST, 20 June 2012

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UPDATED:

09:50 EST, 21 June 2012

Lesley Dunford was onvicted of the manslaughter of her three-year-old daughter after an inquest into the 2004 death was dramatically halted by a coroner

A ‘remorseless’ mother jailed for killing her three-year-old daughter had laughed and joked as the young girl lay dying in hospital, it emerged today.

Lesley Dunford, 33, was yesterday convicted of the manslaughter of her young daughter Lucy in 2004, eight years after a coroner dramatically halted the youngster’s inquest.

Dunford, jailed for seven years yesterday, suffocated Lucy just six months after her seven-month-old son Harvey died in an apparent cot death, a court heard.

But it emerged today that Dunford laughed and joked with her youngest daughter just minutes after medics said they were losing the battle save Lucy.

The mother also telephoned a vicar and her husband before calling for an ambulance for her stricken daughter, according to The Sun.

Dunford’s daughter Lucy was found with cuts and bruises on her neck and shoulders at the family home in Camber, East Sussex, in February 2004.

The three-year-old was rushed to Conquest Hospital in Hastings but could not be saved.

After conflicting post mortem reports, Dunford was arrested two days after Lucy’s death, but a lack of evidence saw prosecutors drop the case.

She was rearrested when a coroner dramatically halted the youngster’s inquest and forced police to reopen the investigation.

A judge told Dunford she had gone from ‘carer to killer’ when she inflicted fatal injuries on her young daughter in 2004.

A jury at Lewes Crown Court convicted Dunford of manslaughter but cleared her of murder.

Sentencing yesterday Judge Richard
Brown said: ‘The jury have convicted you of manslaughter of your
three-year-old daughter Lucy.

‘It
may well be you are the only one who knows exactly what happened on
that dreadful day in 04 which took you from carer to killer.

‘Since then you have done your level best to lie your way out of any responsibility.

‘This indicates you have little or no remorse for what you did.’

An
original post mortem found that Lucy may have died from a sudden onset
of a bacterial infection which led to her choking on her own vomit.

Dunford’s house in Camber, East Sussex, where her daughter Lucy was found not breathing with bruises

However,
during a second examination this was disputed and the idea put forward
that suspicious bruising on the tot’s upper body may mean her airways
had been compressed forcefully.

At the time Dunford claimed her
daughter had been ‘perfectly fine’ earlier in the day but that she had
been tired so she had put her to bed – she later told paramedics she
thought her daughter had had a ‘fit’.

After
she had found her daughter Dunfold refused to ring the emergency
services until she had spoken to her husband – whom she told ‘it’s
happened again’ in reference to Lucy’s younger brother Harley who had
been found dead in his cot six months previously.

Describing how Dunford later joked about her daughter in hospital, nurse Caroline Simpson, who was in a waiting room with the mother, said: ‘The girl put a paper cup of water to her mouth but it spilled down her front.

‘The mum said, “She’s always doing that”. She appeared to find it quite hilarious.’

Paramedics at Conquest Hospital in
Hastings noticed two marks on her neck which had started to bruise and
requested the attendance of police at the hospital.

Dunford was arrested in February 2004 and interviewed by police then and again in May.

Her case was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service who decided there was not enough evidence to charge Dunford with the murder of Lucy.

‘This was a difficult and complex case that involved evidence from a number of medical experts.’

Simon Ringrose, CPS

But during her inquest in 2009 East Sussex coroner Alan Craze demanded the case was revisited.

The
inquest threw up new information which had been given by medical
experts in 2005 during a Family Court hearing into Lucy’s death.

This information had not been passed on to the CPS. Dunford was then rearrested and charged in July 2011.

Prosecutor Sally Howes QC said during the trial that the inquest had ‘excluded the likelihood’ of a serious infection and found that injuries to the airways were consistent with an ‘application of force’.

On July 12, 2011, Dunford was therefore rearrested and Ms Howes said she told officers: ‘I have been waiting for this to happen.’

Dunford, 33, was arrested in February 2004 and interview by police then and again in May

During his sentencing Judge Brown told the court he took into account Dunford’s ‘childlike manner’ and the ‘long delay’ in bringing the trial to court.

However he said courts have a duty to ‘protect little people like Lucy from violence’.

Speaking afterwards, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Sloan, of the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: ‘There was a thorough police investigation at the time but the forensic evidence then did not support a prosecution.

‘The death of Lucy was immediately treated as suspicious by Sussex Police. Her mother was arrested and interviewed and there was a thorough investigation.

‘However, based on the information available at the time, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision was that there was insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution.

‘The CPS decision turned largely on reports from two pathologists, which were conflicting.’

Simon Ringrose, of the CPS, said: ‘This was a difficult and complex case that involved evidence from a number of medical experts.

‘The reinvestigation into the circumstances of Lucy Dunford’s death included obtaining further medical evidence.

‘This evidence effectively ruled out a natural cause of death and was consistent with Lucy having been suffocated.

‘The only person who could have done this was her mother, Lesley Dunford.’

After the sentencing Wayne Dunford declined to comment.

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