A mother who let her partner kill her four-week-old son by breaking his neck posted sickening Facebook posts showing the couple making wedding plans and trying to sell their son’s baby clothes.
Kayleigh Driver, 31, was sentenced this week to seven years in prison for causing or allowing the death of a child without doing anything to save her son Ollie from the violence inflicted on him by his father Michael Davis.
Davis, 29, from Leicester, received a minimum sentence of 22 years on Wednesday for killing her baby in the brutal October 2017 attack.
Ollie was pronounced dead after being found lifeless in his cot, having also suffered fractures to his skull, collarbone, both arms and the joints of all his limbs.
Social services had failed him, having missed “the first opportunities” to intervene when his father inflicted waves of violence on him over 10 days, taking out his anger on his son after growing tired of spending nights playing instead of sleeping.
Mother Kayleigh Driver (right) posted a ‘Happy New Year’ photo of her and partner Michael Davis (left), two and a half months after she allowed him to kill her son.
Ollie Davis was pronounced dead after being found dead in his bedroom in 2017.
The jury acquitted Ollie’s mother Kayleigh Driver (pictured) of murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but she was jailed for seven years for the offenses of causing or permitting the death of a child and causing or permitting cause a child to suffer serious physical harm. injury
Michael Davis, 29, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 22 years for murdering his son Ollie.
The couple were arrested in 2017 and then made public declarations of love to each other on Facebook in December, just two months after David murdered baby Ollie.
“Happy 1 year and 4 months to my man. I love you with all my heart and I wouldn’t change you for the world. I love you,” Kayleigh Driver wrote in a December 2017 post on Facebook.
Later that month, she posted: “I’m so in love with my man I can’t wait to marry him next year. I love you, Michael James Davis.”
Davis responded, posting, “Ah same baby and I love you too.”
In another post made on New Year’s Eve 2017, Driver posted that he had had a “very happy but reflective” time. [sic] year’.
She wrote: “Michael James Davis and I lost our baby when he grew his angel wings on October 21st, but we will never forget him.”
Driver was trying to raise money by selling Ollie’s baby clothes on Facebook. In a post from December 2017, he wrote: “Does anyone know of anyone having a baby since we have giveaways?” [sic] We are full of kid stuff and we want to raise money for Ollie’s farewell.
And Davis posted a effusive tribute to her partner for their fifth anniversary in August 2021, posting on Facebook: “I just want to say Happy 5th Anniversary, we’ve been through a lot in the last 5 years but we’re still going strong no.” I don’t think I would have gotten through all of this without you, I love you so much and I can’t wait for everything to settle so we can start building the rest of our future, I don’t really have many friends but I’ve got you and that’s all does matters.
This revelation comes after fury erupted yesterday over the revelation that vile child killer Davis asked for donations to the Sands charity, four years after leaving him to die in his cot from a broken neck.
Sands said they were “angry and upset” that Davis had asked for donations despite knowing what he had done, saying it was an apparent attempt to present a “sympathetic image.”
The couple were arrested in 2017 and then made public declarations of love to each other on Facebook in December, just two months after David murdered baby Ollie.
The driver (pictured with Davis) was found guilty of charges of causing or permitting the death of a child and causing or permitting serious physical injury.
Sentencing Davis at Leicester Crown Court to life imprisonment on Wednesday, Judge Cotter said Ollie’s murder had involved a “devastating” fatal spinal injury inflicted up to eight days before death.
Sands chief executive Clea Harmer said: “We are horrified by the terrible crime committed by Michael Davis, who murdered his son Ollie.
“We are angry and upset to learn that he then cynically asked Sands for donations, apparently in an attempt to paint a sympathetic picture of himself.
‘Our investigations have confirmed that no donations were made through this channel.
“The news of the sentencing is deeply distressing, especially for anyone who has experienced pregnancy or infant loss, and we are here to provide comfort and support to anyone who needs it.”
A report published yesterday found social services “failed to take advantage” of “early opportunities” to refer and assess the family.
The report, compiled in 2017 but published recently, said the abuse the little boy suffered was not “foreseeable”, even though both parents had previously had “significant” involvement with social services.
Despite acknowledging “systematic deficits”, the report stated that it “would not have contributed” to Ollie’s tragic death.
Writing by the Leicester Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Board, it found that not all contacts or referrals made to social services about Ollie were “treated with sufficient care, thoroughness and seriousness”.
The report said assessments on Ollie after his birth were not detailed enough and that information sharing between stakeholders was “compromised at some points” and on “more than one occasion”.
The board said: “It is very clear that all the professionals who participated in [Ollie] and his family worked to help his parents care for him and keep him safe.’
However, he added that “more could have been done to explore the vulnerability and risk of this family.”
The review concluded that despite identifying “procedural issues and systemic deficiencies”, these “would not have contributed” to Ollie’s death.
Leicester City Council said 16 proposed improvements had been implemented since 2017 following the safeguarding review.
The baby had suffered broken ribs as well as fractures to his skull, collarbone, both arms and all the joints in his four small limbs before arriving at Leicester Royal Infirmary on the day of his death.
Pathologists determined that the little baby’s “broken” neck, suffered about four days before his death, was the fatal injury.
The couple was not together when Driver discovered she was pregnant. She had moved back in with an ex-boyfriend and Davis was living with one of her friends.
The driver demanded compensation from the court for her disability, which delayed the sentencing hearing. She appeared yesterday on a scooter due to her multiple sclerosis
The driver (right), 31, and Davis, 29, (left), appeared in court in 2017.
Davis, now 29, and Driver, now 31, both of Carlisle Street, Leicester, were initially arrested by police on October 27, 2017 after a post-mortem examination revealed that Ollie had died from the effects delayed from a neck fracture, which is believed to have been due to a neck fracture. occurred up to eight days before his death.
The injury had caused compression of his spinal cord, which had caused him to stop breathing.
It was also revealed that he had 40 bone fractures, including skull fractures, clavicle fractures, arm and leg joint fractures and 23 rib fractures.
Police said the detailed investigation, which drew on the experience of many medical professionals, was able to establish that the injuries were not accidental and must have been caused by severe physical abuse.
Throughout the investigation and subsequent trial, both parents denied knowing what had happened to Ollie.
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Inspector Mark Parish, senior investigating officer, said: “At the heart of this complex investigation has always been the effort to get justice for Ollie.
‘Ollie was a newborn baby who depended on his parents for everything he needed and it was their duty to love and protect him. Instead, he was let down in the most horrendous way imaginable.
‘Due to the number of injuries Ollie suffered and the medical expertise required to examine those injuries, it has taken over six years for this investigation to reach court and for Ollie’s parents to be held accountable for his death.
“During this extremely difficult time, Ollie’s family have had to deal with many emotions, but throughout the entire process they have not only cooperated with the investigation, but have also been extremely supportive and I want to thank them for this. I look forward to the sentencing today allows you to begin to accept what has been a truly unbearable moment.
‘I would also like to thank the investigation and prosecution team for their continued efforts in this case. Their work over the last six and a half years to uncover the truth about Ollie’s death is commendable.’