Outrage as grandparents found guilty in tragic d.e.a.t.h of 2-year-old Ethan — A heartbreaking case that’s left the nation asking: how was this allowed to happen?

Two grandparents have been found guilty of murdering their toddler grandson to whom they caused “distress, pain and misery”.

Little Ethan Ives-Griffiths died two days after he collapsed with a fatal head injury at the home of his grandparents, Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, in Flintshire, North Wales in August 2021. At the grandparents’ trial one juror even wiped away tears as horrific details of the two year old’s injuries were read to the court. CCTV images were shown in which Michael Ives was seen grabbing the toddler by the arm and carrying him like a ‘rag doll’ toward a car, and dragging him through the garden.

The jury was told Ethan was “withdrawn” and painfully thin” and subjected to “distress, pain and misery” in the weeks before he died. Mold Crown Court heard the couple blamed his death on their daughter, his mum Shannon Ives, who was also on trial accused of causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty towards Ethan – she was also found guilty today.

Sa the jury returned Michael and Kerry Ives exchanged a brief glance at each other before the guilty verdicts were given by the foreman, they then sat in silence.

Mr Justice Griffiths told them there is only one sentence for murder, life imprisonment, though he must set a minimum term. He told Ethan’s mum Shannon Ives that she faces a ‘substantial’ prison sentence. All will be sentenced on Friday, October 3.

During the trial, prosecutor Caroline Rees KC said that on the night of August 14, Ethan was downstairs with his grandparents while his mother was upstairs on the phone at the time he sustained his fatal injury.

Ms Rees said: “The prosecution say what must have been a forceful attack on Ethan that night was the culmination of physical and emotional neglect and abuse upon him by those who should have cared for him the most.” Both Michael and Kerry Ives told police their grandson had collapsed suddenly.

“The prosecution say these two defendants entered a pact of silence as to what they did to Ethan that night, immediately working together as a team of two to conceal the truth about the reason for his fatal collapse.”

She said the grandparents had chosen to “blame their own daughter” rather than admit what really happened. “They say it must have been Shannon Ives who inflicted the injuries which led to Ethan’s death,” she said.

Ms Rees said Shannon was aware her parents “represented a significant risk of physical harm” but “took no steps to protect her child”. In interview, Shannon said she was scared of her parents and knew them to be abusive, the court heard.

Ms Rees said: “She had seen them shaking Ethan in anger on many occasions. She said she was petrified of her father in particular.” The court heard Kerry Ives delayed calling 999 for almost 20 minutes after Ethan’s collapse, before making the call at 9.21pm.

Ethan was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital and then transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital for brain surgery, but was pronounced dead at 6pm on August 16. He had “serious, catastrophic head injuries” and found to be “severely underweight” and “covered in bruises”, the court heard.

The jury was told he weighed 10kg, or 22lb, when he died and at a post-mortem examination 40 external injuries were observed. Medical evidence showed his fatal head injury was caused by deliberate use of force which may have included an element of forceful shaking, Ms Rees said.

Abdominal injuries consistent with forceful blows were also found, the court heard. CCTV footage taken from outside the family home in the weeks before his death showed his mother “standing by, totally unconcerned whilst Ethan was ill-treated and handled by her father in a totally inhumane way”, Ms Rees said.

In clips shown to the court, Michael Ives could be seen carrying his grandson by the top of his arm, “dangling him like a rag doll” and appearing to hit out at him after putting him into the backseat of a car.

Another clip showed Ethan on a trampoline, where Michael Ives was seen to put the toddler’s hands on his head – a technique Ms Rees said was used “to discipline” the child. Ms Rees said: “We say that footage can properly be described as harrowing, with a view into how traumatic the last weeks of Ethan’s life must have been.”

During the trial Michael Ives took to the stand and said his daughter, Ethan’s mother Shannon, would hit her son after they both moved into the family home earlier that year. He said: “She was quick-tempered.” He said she would slap him to the back of the head, as well as to the legs or backside.

Asked how often that would happen, he said: “Sometimes it would be a couple of times a day, but it just varied.”

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Caroline Rees, Ives said he felt “sick” about letting Ethan decline while he lived with them. He accepted that he neglected Ethan and that the way he carried him, by his upper arm, was cruel – but he denied mistreating him in other ways.

After watching CCTV footage of himself and Ethan in the back garden of the home on August 4 2021, when he could be seen carrying the toddler by his arm, Ives was asked how he felt about how he behaved. He replied: “Ashamed. Disgusted in myself.”

He said he did not notice Ethan was so “desperately dehydrated” that medical experts said he would have died in a short time even if he had not suffered a brain injury. He said he was “shocked” to learn there were 40 bruises or red marks found on Ethan after his death.

He told the court he did not discipline Ethan by making him put his hands on his head, although in interviews he told police he had done that about four times.

When grandmother Kerry Ives took the stand she told the jury: “I can’t explain what happened because nothing did.” Ives accepted all three of the adults neglected Ethan.

Shanghai Ives told the court her parents were “horrible”. She said she later moved back home after splitting up from a partner she had been living with and would sleep on a mattress in the dining room.

Michael Ives would kick her, call her a s**g and tell her he did not want her there as he walked past in the morning, she said. On one occasion her father, who kept bearded dragons as pets, dropped a box of locusts on her, the court heard.

She said she would shout at Ethan but denied hitting him, apart from a tap to the hand or bottom, or punishing him. The boy’s mother said: “Ethan was OK. He was playing with toys, he was talking, he was walking, he was doing everything.”

She told the jury she had wanted to take Ethan to see a doctor due to his weight, but added: “Michael and Kerry would always threaten me, saying if anyone saw the way he was I’d get him taken away from me.”