Baby Teddie died with 17 broken ribs, fractures to his skull and collarbone, a bleed on the brain and brain, spinal and eye damage.
Mitchell had been in a relationship with Teddie’s mother, Lucci Smith, 30, for about eight months and the pair lived together. During an interview Smith was asked by detectives how her son suffered such horrific injuries and she simply replies ‘no idea’.
She then goes on to say she would tell police if there had been any violence toward Teddie because, ‘he’s my son at the end of the day and he means more to me than anybody’.
And it has been revealed that social services and Cambridgeshire Police had been alerted to concerns from worried neighbours weeks before Teddie died.
Kane Mitchell, 32, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for murdering baby Teddie, who died in hospital on November 11, 2019, after ten days on a life support machine.
A four-week trial at Cambridge Crown Court heard that Teddie had suffered injuries consistent with being ‘gripped hard’, ‘shaken vigorously’, and ‘having his head struck against a hard surface’.
Footage from just before Mitchell’s arrest shows him holding his victim in hospital while he sobs and says: ‘Come on baby, Daddy’s here.’
At 3pm on November 1, 2019, the ambulance service was called to Pattison Court, St Neots, where Teddie was found to be unresponsive and in cardiac arrest.
Smith had left Teddie in the care of Mitchell that day while she did the morning school run. Harrowing footage from the Channel 4 series 24 Hours in Police Custody has revealed the moment the heartless killer starts spouting crocodile tears as he is arrested.
Detective Inspector Lucy Thompson says of Mitchell, ‘He is completely devoid of any remorse or empathy, that’s the thing I find really hard. It’s all about Kane and not what Teddie’s been through,’ He said: ‘I don’t f***** think so. Oh my god, I would never hurt a baby. I’m not leaving my son. However officers were able to prove Mitchell had killed Teddie because of the types of injuries how they were inflicted.
Teddie died as a result of his fractured skull and lack of oxygen to the brain. His death is reminiscent of the injuries which killed 16-month-old Star Hobson who was murdered by Savannah Brockhill, 28, the girlfriend of her mother Frankie Smith.
Mrs Justice Lambert said the ‘fatal punch or kick’ to Star caused the toddler to lose half the blood in her body and damaged her internal organs. Brockhill was jailed for 25 years for murdering Star and Smith was jailed for eight for doing nothing to stop her. A council spokesperson told The Express: ‘A serious case review is underway and the findings should be published later this year. We cannot comment further until it is published.’
It comes after the Government announced an inquiry into how social services and local authorities liaise after six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was beaten and tortured before being murdered by his stepmother.
