Black Country couple jailed for life for murder of three-year-old
A Black Country couple have been jailed for life for the murder of a three-year-old who suffered more than 70 injuries after being left in their care.
Kayley Boleyn and Christopher Taylor, of Bilston, were sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court for the murder of Ryan Lovell-Hancox, who died in hospital on Christmas Eve 2008.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Boleyn, 19, was known to social services.
A social worker even attended the home Boleyn shared with 25-year-old Taylor the day the toddler was rushed to hospital in a coma.
Boleyn was told she must serve at least 13 years in prison while Taylor's minimum term was set at 15 years.
The couple, of Slim Avenue, Bilston, were found guilty by a jury in March of murder and child cruelty.
The four-week criminal trial heard that Ryan's mother Amy Hancox, 21, paid the pair £40 a week to look after her son and knew nothing of the abuse.
She told the court: "My crime was naivety. Kayley is related to my family. She never showed any signs of nastiness."
Ryan's parents, Amy Hancox, 21, and 24-year-old John Lovell, wept throughout the 45-minute hearing.
Miss Hancox ran from the public gallery in tears as her victim impact statement was read out. In it she described her son as a "bubbly, intelligent boy who she loved with all her heart".
In the dock, Taylor and Boleyn stared straight ahead throughout the hearing, not even flinching when Mrs Justice Macur passed her sentences of life imprisonment.
Jailing the couple, the judge said they made Ryan's life "hell", forcing him to live in "squalor".
The abuse the toddler suffered was not the result of a "flash of temper" but sustained and horrific.
The court heard Boleyn had "abused the trust" of Ryan's parents after Miss Hancox asked her to look after the toddler because of her own fragile mental state.
