Mother and ex-boyfriend jailed for killing girl, three, after her cries interrupted them having sex

A mother and her former boyfriend have been jailed for killing her three-year-old daughter after the girl’s cries interrupted them having sex.

Kaylee-Jayde Priest was found dead on 9 August last year at the flat where she lived with her mother, Nicola Priest, who sent a text threatening to kill the child a few days earlier.

Priest was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter at Birmingham Crown Court, where the judge said the child had been the victim of a “ferocious” assault that left her with fatal chest and abdominal injuries.

The 23-year-old mother rang 999 but a jury convicted her after hearing the youngster had been “dead before the call was made”.

Her then-boyfriend Callum Redfern, 22, was also found guilty of manslaughter and given a 14-year jail term.

They were both cleared of murder.

Experts compared Kaylee-Jayde’s wounds to those of a child hit by a car at 40mph, or who had fallen three floors on to a concrete floor.

The child had previously suffered broken ribs, lower leg fractures and a broken sternum, which led the jury to find Priest guilty of cruelty to a child.

Redfern was cleared of the same charge.

Mr Justice Foxton QC said: “Kaylee was put to bed some time around 7pm, while the two of you went to have sex in Nicola Priest’s bedroom.

“But like many children her age, Kaylee did not want to go to bed, but to stay up and play.”

He said there was no direct proof of what happened next, but that Kaylee-Jayde vomited repeatedly as the result of the “severe beating” that Priest and Redfern were responsible for inflicting on her.

He said: “No doubt irritated by Kaylee crying, asking to be let out, it interrupted the two of you when you wanted to have sex.

“You lost your tempers and were parties to the assault which cost Kaylee her life.”

He said they could have saved her life if they had quickly called for medical help and condemned their “uncaring and cruel attitude to Kaylee”.

Asked how Kaylee-Jayde’s death had affected him, Redfern had told police: “It’s not my child… it’s not really affected me.”

Priest, who experts say has “a very low level of intelligence”, cried as she was sentenced, while Redfern showed no emotion.

During the trial, jurors had heard how Priest would hit Kaylee-Jayde around the head and refer to her as a “f****** brat”.

In a text message exchange on 24 July last year, days before Kaylee-Jayde’s death, Priest told Redfern: “I’m gonna kill her… because she keeps leaving the living room or going in the kitchen, so I’ve paled [hit] her one and smacked her for sh****** in her nappy.”

Redfern said: “Good – give her one from me.”

Priest replied: “I will, babe.”

Priest, of Poplar Avenue, Edgbaston, Birmingham, and Redfern, of Temple Street, Dudley, West Midlands, must both serve two-thirds of their jail terms before they can be considered for release.

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