An evil child killer who beat a three-year-old boy to death was previously locked up for brutally assaulting a mum who nudged him with her pram on a busy bus.
Sick Nathaniel Pope dragged his victim onto the street by her hair, before repeatedly kicking her as she cowered on the ground.
Her two terrified daughters, aged just three and three months, were left to watch on in horror.
Pope, 31, was this week sentenced to life in jail for the murder of tot Kemarni Watson Darby, the Mirror reports.
Captured on CCTV in Hendon, London, the bus attack took place over a decade ago when furious Pope launched the savage attack on the woman.
The 23-year-old mum had merely nudged Pope and his then partner with her pushchair on the crowded bus.
For that, she was abused, spat at and dragged through the vehicle by her hair.
Pope smashed her head into a handrail, flung her on the pavement, then kicked her as she lay on the ground.
Panic-stricken, the mum attempted to fend off her attacker with a child’s brolly.
Pope used “considerable force” to block the victim’s efforts to get back to her children, still on the bus, Hendon Magistrates' Court was told in 2011.
For the appalling attack, Pope received only four months in prison after admitting common assault.
His partner received a three month suspended sentence for the same offence.
Pope has now been found guilty of killing three-year-old Kemarni Watson Darby, his partner's son.
The child's injuries were so bad they were compared to a car crash or a fall from height.
Kemarni, who was described as a "lively, boisterous, cheeky and happy child" died from abdominal injuries at his West Bromwich home in June 2018.
The catalogue of damage included four broken ribs believed to have been sustained four weeks before the final, fatal beating.
In all, Kemarni’s tiny body showed 34 injured areas.
The child’s mother, 31-year-old Alicia Watson - a woman described as having a “zero to 100 temper” - was cleared of murder, but found guilty of causing or allowing Kemarni’s death.
Both she and Pope were convicted of child cruelty.
She was sentenced to 11 years.
At Birmingham Crown Court, the pair were described as “partners in crime” but ended up blaming each other for the boy's death.
Collectively, they had no explanation for the injuries to Kemarni’s head, mouth, neck, arms, chest, abdomen, back and legs, other than the fact he had walked into a door or his pram.
Pope and Watson remained together after the toddler's death.
Pope, a Wolverhampton resident, was sentenced to serve a minimum of 24 years for the crime.
Pope spent his childhood in the US and returned to the UK aged 17 where he attended college.
He left without qualifications, moved to Luton and worked in a warehouse and as a football match steward.
Pope landed in the West Midlands in 2014 and found restaurant work in Smethwick.
he court was told he currently resided in Wolverhampton.
It was the asides - the glimpses into the child’s torment - that made the five-month trial so harrowing for those present.
So harrowing, judge Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples ordered the jury should be exempt for life from serving on any other trial because of the “awful nature of the facts”.
Prosecuting, Mr Badenoch said: “Although he lost his life in the most horrendous way, he had a voice in this courtroom.
"He was also a witness in this courtroom, the most important witness - the silent witness.
“It is Kemarni’s body that spoke the loudest, with the most clarity, in this courtroom.
"His squeezed, battered and lifeless, oxygen-starved body cannot lie.
“This is something which his mother and Nathaniel Pope have summarily sought to discredit, shift around and silence.”
Of the suffering, Mr Tony Badenoch QC said: “The prosecution case is that Kemarni suffered a catalogue of horrendous injuries for weeks in advance of his death - caused by levels of extreme force associated with a car crash.
“He was also marked and scarred in dozens of separate areas, including grip injuries where he had been manhandled in his young life, as he was learning to walk and speak.
“That was the life of Kemarni in his final weeks - when his mother spent the £25 that was needed for his ongoing nursery attendance on driving lessons and drugs.”
Mr Badenoch described the appalling injuries: “There were multiple fractures to both the left and right side of his ribcage which could be dated historically into the hours and weeks preceding his death.
"At least four separate events caused the fractures.
"They included corner fractures, fracture lines, partial fractures and a complete transverse fracture."
Internal bruising and lacerations were extensive. “It was a mesenteric laceration which ultimately killed him as his abdominal internal structures were forced against his spine with force.
“In short, he died from abdominal trauma which was most likely caused by a blow.”
Sentencing, Mrs Justice Tipples told Pope he had launched the “severe and sustained” assault because he had considered Kemarni “a nuisance” who “got in the way” of his relationship with Watson.
“This was a particularly distressing and tragic case. Kermani was a lively, boisterous, cheeky and happy child. He had a sunny personality and was loved by so many people, both friends and family.
“They remember him laughing and smiling, and being happy. Kermani’s death has had a significant impact on his family. They are all devastated that Kermani is no longer part of their lives and that they will never see him grow up."
Mrs Tipples continued: “You, Nathaniel Pope, brutally assaulted Kemarni in the sitting room of his own home and knowing he was in extreme distress and pain you left him to bleed to death on the sofa. Skilled medical examinations identified the cause of Kemarni’s death.
“He died from inflicted abdominal injuries. The fatal injuries were extremely severe and a result of extreme force. These injuries were compatible with the type of injuries seen in a road traffic collision or when an individual falls from height.
"This would have been very painful for Kemarni and caused him significant distress which you, Nathaniel Pope, would have been aware of.
“I am sure the pain he was in lasted from several hours to several days and as a result of that pain he reduced his level of activity to minimise the pain he was suffering.
"This would have been clear to you, Alicia Watson, yet you neglected to do anything about it.
Speaking to Pope, Mrs Tipples said: “You had seen Alicia Watson abusing Kemarni by slapping him. Abusing Kemarni was, and became, accepted conduct in your flat.
“Kemarni was not your son and did not mean anything to you. You saw him as a nuisance who got in the way of your relationship with Alicia Watson."
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