A mother and father have been jailed for life for the murder of their baby son on Christmas Day.
Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden were said in Derby Crown Court to have inflicted 130 separate injuries on Finley Boden before he fatally collapsed in 2020. He had 71 bruises, 57 bone breaks, fractures, and burns. Finley also had fractures to his collarbones and thighs while his pelvis had been broken in two places - possibly due to sustained "kicking or stamping".
The 10-month-old boy also had two burns on his left hand with one believed to be from a "hot, flat surface" and other probably "from a cigarette lighter flame". Marsden must serve a minimum of 27 years and Boden a minimum of 29 years in prison.
Sentencing them on Friday, Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples labelled the pair "persuasive and accomplished liars" who inflicted "unimaginable cruelty" on their son.
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She said: “You both knew that Finley was very seriously ill and dying… yet you deliberately failed to seek any medical help for him and you made sure that he was not seen by anyone that could have rescued him and taken him away from your care.
“He was subject to repeated abuse on multiple occasions. Once the injuries had been inflicted, Finley’s daily experience was one of considerable pain, distress and suffering.
“It was obvious to both of you by December 16 that Finley was very seriously injured, and he was utterly miserable. He was no longer able to sit up and play with his toys. He was unable to feed himself.”
She added: “By the evening of December 23 he was plainly dying. There was nothing subtle about this at all. It was plainly obvious to both of you.”
Immediately before she passed the sentence, the judge said: “Neither of you have shown any remorse at all for what you have done.”
Finley had been in the care of Boden, of Romford Way, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield and Marsden, of no fixed address, for just over a month after a Family Court deemed they did not pose an unmanageable risk to their son in the weeks before his murder. In documents submitted to the Family Court, Boden, 30, described his son as "perfect".
However, in the time he spent at the family home in Holland Road, Old Whittington, Derbyshire, the young boy became the victim of what prosecutors called a "savage and brutal" campaign of abuse. Images shown to the jury show the house full of clutter with cannabis paraphernalia in proximity to out-of-date baby formula and Finley's clothing covered in his blood, saliva, and faeces.
It is understood the Family Court hearing in October 2020, saw magistrates be presented images of a tidy home and heard from the parents that they "had worked really hard to make changes". The court ordered he should be returned to them within eight weeks and did not order for any more drug testing.
This is despite the fact Derbyshire County Council raised "some concerns" over their parenting capabilities and requested a four-month transition.
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