North Antrim couple found guilty of assault which left a young boy blind, brain damaged and fighting for his life

Standing in the dock of Newry Crown Court with his arms folded, 35-year-old Christopher Fulton shook his head in continued denial as the jury foreman announced their unanimous verdicts, leaning across a prison officer to whisper something inaudible to his wife Amanda Fulton.

After seven hours and 45 minutes of deliberations over two days at the end of the five week trial, the jury found Mr Fulton unanimously guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and two charges of child cruelty by wilfully neglecting the young victim.

While Mrs Fulton was acquitted of GBH with intent and one charge of child cruelty, the 35-year-old was however unanimously convicted of causing or allowing the child to suffer significant physical harm and a further charge of child cruelty.

The estranged couple showed very little emotion as the foreman announced the jury’s damning verdicts but in contrast, many of the jurors were in floods of tears and were clearly distressed.

Thanking the jury for their diligence and service, Judge Peter Irvine KC told them the trial “has been very harrowing, I have no doubt, for everyone concerned having to hear the evidence in this case.”

He added: “The way in which you have dealt with all of those issues is exemplary, I have to say,” and recognising their distress and the nature off the evidence they have had to hear, he told them that “counselling will be available to you.”

“I can see already that a number of you are very, very emotionally upset and I would urge upon you that if you do require counselling, please contact the number which will be given to you,” Judge Irvine told them.

Since the trial began in the first week in September, the eight men and four women on the jury heard how the very young child was unresponsive on the morning of 7 November 2019 but despite their concerns, neither Mr nor Mrs Fulton called a doctor for three hours.

When the little boy was eventually seen by the GP at 4pm that day, it was plainly obvious to him that with a pupil blown and the infant’s fontanel hard, “he was a very sick child.”

Initially he was rushed in an ambulance to the Causeway Hospital where a scan uncovered a significant head injury and he was then taken to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.

It was there, the jury heard, that doctors discovered the true extent of his life threatening injuries including:

• Fractured skull with associated bleeding to the brain and retinal bleeding;
• 27 rib fractures;
• Fractures to both thigh bones;
• Fractures to both shin bones;
• Fractured wrist;
• A lacerated liver.

It had always been the Crown case that with no credible, innocent explanation for the injuries which experts compared to those a child might sustain in a high speed car crash, one or other of the defendants was responsible for causing the injuries and that given the nature and size of the family home at Rockfield Gardens just outside Ballymoney, the other must have witnessed or heard it yet did nothing to intervene or help the boy.

The jury heard evidence from numerous medical expert witnesses describing the injuries suffered by the very young boy as “severe and significant” and were so serious that he would have died without medical intervention.

The range of consultant paediatric doctors who testified all agreed that an incident involving blunt force trauma such as a punch or being struck against a hard surface like a wall or floor, as well as shaking with an adult compressing the rib cage, would be a possible explanation for the “non-accidental injuries.”

The jury also heard claims that Mr Fulton was seen handling the very young child roughly including bouncing him so hard on his knee that his limbs were “flapping,” covering his mouth and nose with his and blowing forcibly up it and “thumping” his back to bring wind up.

There have also been claims that Mr Fulton “is a control freak” and that while the victim lay fighting for his life in hospital, nurses saw him “chatting and laughing” over a video on his brother-in-law’s mobile phone.

Giving evidence on their own behalves the now separated couple launched what is known as a cut-throat defence with each of them blaming the other while maintaining their innocence.

They told the jury, in terms, that it must have been their co-defendant because “I know I didn’t do it and there were only two adults in the house.”

By their verdicts today (Wednesday), the jury declared they are sure beyond reasonable doubt that Christopher Fulton struck the boy so hard that he fractured his skull and lacerated his liver, that he shook him with such ferocity that all his limbs sustained fractures and at the time he was squeezing him so hard he broke 15 ribs.

The jury also declared they are satisfied that it is not the first time that Fulton, a hulking 6’3” 16 stone fully grown man, compressed the little boy’s chest with such force that 12 other ribs had been broken before and were healing.

Mrs Fulton, the jury have decided, did nothing to help and “failed to take such steps as you could reasonably have been expected to take to protect” the victim.

Following the jury’s damning verdicts Mrs Fulton’s defence counsel Declan Quinn asked for the 35-year-old to be freed on bail pending sentence, highlighting that she was convicted of a lesser role and has already served the equivalent of a two-year sentence.

Judge Irvine told the barrister however “that is refused” and ordered that she be taken into custody “immediately,” with the judge saying she has been convicted “of a most serious offence.”

Conor Coulter, defence counsel for Mr Fulton also applied for bail but again, Judge Irvine refused and ordered the pair to be taken into custody.

Adjourning the case to allow time for various reports to be compiled, the judge said he would pass sentence on 13 December.