A woman who violently shook to death the baby she was in the process of adopting has been sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in jail for murder.
Laura Castle, 38, lost her temper with the baby because he wouldn’t stop crying after his breakfast, a court has heard.
In a letter to the judge, the baby’s biological mother said: “He was placed in the home of a monster.”
On Wednesday, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting at Preston crown court, said it might never be known what precisely happened on the day that Leiland-James Corkill died.
The judge said that, given expert testimony about the extent of internal and external injuries to Leiland-James “and in particular his brain, eyes and spine”, he considered that Castle’s account “significantly underplays the extent and degree of violence which you inflicted”.
It must have involved “very severe or considerable impact and oscillation forces” to have caused the internal injuries, while external injuries were consistent with “slapping, pinching and prodding”.
Castle had said she shook the baby, his head banged against the arm of the sofa and he fell to the floor.
The judge said Castle and her husband had regularly discussed returning the baby to local authority care. “It is nothing less than a tragedy that you did not do so.”
The baby was removed from his biological mother at two days old before spending eight months with foster parents. He then went to Laura and Scott Castle, of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where he lived until his murder, just short of reaching 13 months.
The court was read victim impact statements from the baby’s biological mother and the woman who was his foster carer.
In her statement the mother said she felt a lot of hurt and anger towards the local authority.
“No one ever thinks they will lose a child and there are no words to describe how this feels. I was looking forward to letters and updates about his life and how he was growing up into a loving young boy.
“I was told he would be safe and he would have a good life. I was fine with that. Now my world is broken … this would never have happened if he was with me.”
Castle, who sobbed loudly through the sentencing, had denied murder but admitted manslaughter to “have justice” for the baby.
In her letter, the biological mother wrote: “The monster has said that she wants ‘her boy to have justice’. He was not and never will be your baby boy. You lost that right the first second it went through your head to hurt him.”
The baby’s foster carer said the death had affected her entire family.
“As a family unit we’ve encountered a nearly daily struggle as more information has become known to us … we all feel as though the pain will never go away.”
She continued: “I never told the jury what a beautiful little boy he was, with the most contagious laugh, and I feel this may have let him down as they should know this.”
Castle’s defence barrister, David McLachlan QC, said his client was a woman “alone and broken with no support”. She was “isolated and ostracised” and pointed out that it was not a case which involved sustained abuse and cruelty.
Cumbria county council, which placed the baby with the Castles for adoption, has apologised and said the case was the subject of an independent review.
John Readman, the council’s executive director for people, said: “Abuse of a child by adopters is almost unheard of and we are determined to do everything we can to prevent this happening again, here or anywhere else.”
Lesley Walker, the chair of the Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership, said the review was taking place in parallel to the criminal proceedings.
“The review report is in its final stages of approval and we intend to publish in July, at which point I will be able to talk more about its findings. At the heart of this is a little boy who should still be alive today and living happily with a new family and we must not forget that.”
