Mansfield child murder trial told toddler would not have been strong enough to tip scalding mop bucket over herself

Her mother, Katie Crowder is currently on trial at Nottingham Crown Court charged with her murder, with prosecutors claiming the 26-year-old deliberately scalded the 19-month-old and then delayed raising the alarm.

Crowder ran screaming into her parents home, in Wharmby Avenue, Mansfield - two doors down from where she lived with her daughter - claiming the scalding had happened a short time earlier.

Speaking on the sixth day of the two-week trial, on Thursday, November 26, Consultant Paediatrician Dr Rajiv Mittal said he didn’t think Gracie would have been able to lift a mop bucket above her head and tip it over herself, as the defence claim.

He also said that if she had pulled it over while she was sitting on the floor, it would have left a different burns pattern than the one recorded by Home Office Pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton, who carried out Gracie’s post-mortem.

He said: “A child of Gracie’s age would have weighed approximately 10.5kg and I think that it’s highly unlikely that she picked up the bucket and held it over her head. If you say that the bucket was full [as Crowder has claimed] it would have weighed 10kg, and that doesn’t include the weight of the bucket itself. It is possible that she tipped it over herself, but I would expect the injury pattern to have been more on one side of the body, with the worst injuries on the side of the body next to the bucket.”

Yesterday, Dr Hamilton told the court that Gracie had 37 different areas where the skin had come away from her body.

He said there were burns to her face, ears, chest, arms, shoulders, chest, back, bottom, legs, feet and toes, and said her injuries were consistent with a large volume of hot liquid being poured over her.

The court had previously been told that Gracie had burns to 65 per cent of her body, which Dr Hamilton said he agreed was accurate.

Crowder denies murder.

The trial continues.

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