As per testimony given in court, the mother’s boyfriend killed a two-year-old girl in a “frenzied and extremely violent attack” and claimed the dog was to blame.
A “happy, beautiful, and busy little girl,” Lola James, passed away on July 21, 2020, after 101 wounds, “catastrophic” head trauma, and eye impairment.
The toddler was killed as her mother slept upstairs, according to 31-year-old Kyle Bevan of Aberystwyth, a seaside town in Wales.
Four months earlier, Bevan had moved into the Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, house of the family.
He is on trial at Swansea Crown Court along with Lola’s mother, Sinead James, 30, charged with causing or allowing her death.
Bevan was prone to violent outbursts and often used amphetamine, a powerful stimulant also called speed, prosecutor Caroline Rees said.
He subjected the girl to the ‘brutal’ assault while he was alone with her between July 16 evening and July 17 morning, she claimed.
Jurors were shown internet search history that included one made at 6:30am on July 17, reading: ‘My two-year-old child has just taken a bang to the head and gone all limp and snoring. What’s wrong.’
Bevan had taken photographs of the toddler’s injuries across her tiny body, including her blue lips, and filmed her for 22 seconds when she was unconscious.
In footage shown to jurors today, a topless Bevan attempted to make a visibly swollen and bruised Lola stand before allowing her to fall.
He then attempts to place her back on the sofa where she can be heard snoring. ‘She’s gone, she’s gone,’ he says while walking to the camera.
Bevan sent the photos and video to his mother, healthcare worker Alison Bevan, at 6:58am – she pleaded for her son to phone 999.
Claiming his phone didn’t work, he told his mother to call an ambulance at 7:30am.
Bevan alleged Lola’s injuries were down to the family dog pushing her down the stairs in what Rees called a ‘deliberate lie to cover up his guilt’.
Paramedics arrived to find Lola appeared to be wet, and it is believed, Rees said, she had been scrubbed clean.
The bath was spotless, Rees added, despite the rest of the house being messy. Rees said this suggests Bevan was trying to ‘cover his tracks’.
A vomit and blood-stained grey onesie was found by investigators in the corner of the living room.
‘We say that the injuries noted to Lola, including those which caused her premature death, were the result of a brutal and extremely violent physical assault upon her by Kyle Bevan whilst they were alone together,’ Rees said.
‘We say that, rather than face up to that which he did to the little girl, Kyle Bevan immediately tried to save himself.’
Bevan, she added, tried to ‘take a coward’s escape by trying to place false blame upon the family dog’ despite the wounds being ‘inconsistent’ with accidental injuries.
The prosecution accepted, Rees said, James’ claim she was asleep when this all happened, though she should have been warier of leaving him alone with Lola.
Lola’s mother was ‘well aware’ of Bevan’s violent track record and Lola had even suffered previous injuries in his care.
‘Our basis for this assertion is that she knew her children had sustained injuries whilst in Kyle Bevan’s care in the past and she knew that he had a nasty and violent temper, particularly when under the influence of drugs,’ Rees said.
The baby girl, who was just two years and nine months old, died at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff.
‘Her life,’ Rees added, ‘had barely started.’
The trial continues.