The mother of an 18-month-old boy and her former partner have been jailed for his murder.

Alfie Phillips was beaten and smothered, suffering 70 injuries to his body, including a “myriad of bruises” and broken ribs, arms and legs, in what prosecutors described as a night of “violent discipline”.

His mother, Sian Hedges, 27, and her ex-boyfriend Jack Benham, 35, had been drinking whisky and taking cocaine. Traces of the Class A drug were found in Alfie’s body, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

The pair were found guilty of murdering the toddler in Benham’s caravan in Hernhill, near Faversham, Kent, on 28 November 2020.

In his sentencing remarks, the judge said Alfie suffered “unimaginable pain” in the “frenzied attack”.

They were both given life sentences, with Benham jailed for a minimum term of 23 years while Hedges was given a minimum term of 19 years.

Following the guilty verdicts in November, Alfie’s father, Sam Phillips, described his son as “good as gold” and “lively”, adding there was “never a dull moment” with him.

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Speaking after today’s sentencing, he said: “They finally got what they deserved.

“We have got the justice in our hearts.

“Justice has been done.”

The court heard Benham and Hedges started a relationship in September 2020 after meeting at a mutual friend’s house where they would buy drugs.

They gave explanations for earlier injuries Alfie suffered in the months before his death, claiming he cut his eye when playing with keys and hurt his fingers when they were caught in a dog gate.

The court heard Benham sent Hedges a text encouraging her to bite her son “hard” after she messaged him: “Little s*** bit my arm this morning, f****** hurt.”

In other messages, Benham called Alfie a “cry baby” and “little sod”, saying he was going to “poke him in the ear” after he turned off his caravan heater.

Benham claimed he and Hedges had been drinking, chatting and watching YouTube videos on a “just normal” evening before Alfie died.

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Night of ‘violent discipline’

But prosecutor Jennifer Knight KC accused Benham of lying and told jurors: “It is clear that he [Alfie] had been deliberately injured on more than one occasion, culminating in an assault perpetrated on him during the night of 27 to 28 November 2020 that led to his death.”

She added: “Jack Benham and Sian Hedges were in the caravan together throughout the night.

“Had either defendant not been joining in with the assaults, that defendant who was not part of it would have stopped the attack and removed Alfie Phillips from the caravan, and from the presence of the other who was carrying out these attacks.

“The fact that this did not happen can only be because both defendants agreed that the assaults should take place… they both agreed in meting out some sort of aggressive, violent discipline to Alfie that night, which resulted in his death.”

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Alfie’s father: ‘I will never know the truth about what happened’

Both Hedges, of Yelverton, Devon, and Benham denied harming Alfie during the trial.

Benham claimed he woke up with the boy under his leg and thought he had suffocated him.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Mr Phillips said: “After the trial we still feel we deserve answers. I will never know the truth about what happened to my son.

“I never got to hear him say his first proper words, I never got to have a conversation with him, I was robbed of the opportunity to see him grow up.”

Commenting on the sentencing, Will Bodiam from CPS South East, said: “This is an absolutely tragic case. Alfie was killed by the two people, one of whom was his own mother, who were responsible that night for looking after him and protecting him.

“Instead, they subjected him to a series of assaults during the course of that fateful night, leaving him with devastating injuries that he could not survive.”

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