The step-grandfather of a toddler allegedly murdered by his mum and her new boyfriend said he had doubts about the cause of an injury to the boy’s face, a court has heard.

Mark Demain told a jury he struggled to believe the account given by Sian Hedges, 27, about a cut under the eye of her 18-month-old son Alfie Phillips.

He was giving evidence at the trial of Hedges and her then partner Jack Benham, who are alleged to have subjected Alfie to a sustained and fatal assault in a caravan in Hernhill, near Faversham, in November 2020.

Post-mortem examinations revealed the youngster had 70 visible injuries, multiple broken bones and potential signs of smothering to his mouth and lips.

The jury had earlier been told that two months before his death, on September 23, Hedges had taken Alfie to the Estuary View Medical Centre for treatment to a cut under his right eye.

Medical notes show the injury needed to be glued.

At Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday, Alfie’s father, Sam Phillips, said Hedges told him Alfie had cut his eye after falling over at the beach, but could not remember when this was.

And yesterday Mr Phillips’ step-father, Mr Demain, told the jury Hedges had claimed Alfie’s injury had been caused by a pebble.

He added he had a suspicion the reason given by Hedges was not true.

"I had my doubts that it was caused at the beach,” he said.

The prosecution had earlier told the jury that Benham's mother, Joan Benham, remembered an incident she said occurred about six weeks before Alfie’s death when he sustained a cut under his eye.

She said the youngster had been in her house playing with some keys, which he took back to the caravan at the bottom of her garden with Hedges and Benham, who were living in the mobile home.

Mrs Benham recalled that a short time later Benham came back to the house saying that Alfie had caught himself under the eye with the keys, causing a cut, the prosecution said.

Messages exchanged between Hedges and Benham on September 23 seemed to refer to this incident.

Mr Phillips also told the jury that three days before Alfie’s death, when ex-partner Hedges brought his son to visit, the toddler had a bruise on one of his ears.

“It looked like a little pinch mark,” he said.

Hedges and Benham, 35, are accused of murdering Alfie by subjecting the toddler to an “aggressive, violent” show of discipline.

As well as multiple visible injuries and broken bones, traces of cocaine were also found in his body, indicating he had been recently exposed to the Class A drug, which his mum and Benham admitted taking in the hours before he died.

Hedges cried in the dock as the prosecution outlined the case against her and Benham when the trial opened earlier this week.

The jury was told she had recently split from Alfie's father, Sam Phillips, and was living with her son and new boyfriend in the back garden of Benham’s parents’ home in Hernhill, near Faversham.

On the evening of Friday, November 27, 2020, she and Benham were in his parents’ house with Alfie, where the toddler was said to have been looking well and without visible injuries by several of Benham’s relatives.

The youngster was taken back to the caravan at 7pm and was not seen again by anyone other than Benham and Hedges until about 11.30am the following morning.

It was during these hours it is alleged Alfie was murdered.

The court was told that shortly before 11.30am on the Saturday Benham came to the main house with Alfie in his arms. The toddler was described as “blue and floppy” and was not breathing.

Benham’s mother, Joan Benham, started performing CPR in the living room and his father, Mark Benham, called 999.

Paramedics arrived within 10 minutes but it was immediately apparent to them Alfie had been “dead for some time”, said the prosecutor.

Mrs Benham noticed a number of bruises to Alfie’s face she said had not been there the night before.

Benham came into the living room and told paramedics Alfie had been grumpy the night before so they took him into bed with them and when they woke Alfie was trapped under Benham’s legs and they could not wake him.

Alfie was taken to the QEQM Hospital in Margate, and pronounced dead at 12.35pm.

A skeletal survey and post-mortem examinations revealed he had multiple fractures to both of his arms, his ribs and one leg, as well as widespread bruising, marks and scrapes across his body.

Tests indicated many of the breaks to his bones would have occurred in the hours before Alfie’s death.

Prosecutor Jennifer Knight told the jury: “It is clear that Alfie Philips was deliberately injured on more than one occasion, culminating in an assault perpetrated during the night of November 27 to 28 that led to his death.

“Had either defendant not been joining in with the assaults, he or she would have stopped the attack and removed Alfie Phillips from the caravan.

“The fact that this did not happen can only be because both defendants agreed that the assaults should take place and each played their part.

“They were both agreed in meting out aggressive, violent ‘discipline’ to Alfie Phillips, which resulted in his death that night.”

The night in the caravan

The jury was told Hedges and Benham were arrested on the evening of Saturday, November 28, and interviewed over the course of two days.

Tests showed both had used cocaine and Hedges admitted to police she had taken a £40 bag over the course of three hours after Alfie went to sleep, the prosecution said.

The pair also drank whisky and Coke, with Hedges telling police they had their last drink at about 1am and then went to sleep in the same bed as Alfie.

Between 2.15am and 2.30am Mark Benham heard a car pull up on the gravel driveway outside and saw Hedges get out of the vehicle and return to the caravan.

The prosecutor said Hedges initially told police she had driven to Seasalter to get food, but later claimed she had gone to buy drugs after being repeatedly asked to by Benham, but she did not get any.

At about 6.30am Mark Benham let the family’s three dogs out into the main garden, but when one - a pug - did not return he went looking for it with a torch.

As he was searching he saw the door to his son's caravan open and the pug run out.

Hedges told police that at about this time she recalled a dog being let into the caravan. She said Alfie stirred but went back to sleep with his dummy. She said he was “fine and normal”. She then recalled Benham woke her up saying “What the f***’s wrong with him? Oh my God. He’s under my leg”.

Hedges said Alfie was floppy and his lips looked blue. She said she had a gut feeling he was dead.

She told police Benham never watched Alfie alone for more than 10 minutes or so.

She denied having caused him any injury and said she had no idea how Alfie could have fractured his arms or sustained any serious injury.

In interviews, Benham told police he did not consider himself a step-father figure and rarely did anything for Alfie.

He described Alfie as a “mummy’s boy” and admitted he did not like him, the jury was told.

Benham told police Alfie was “whingy and upset” when he was put to bed between 7pm and 8pm on the night of Friday, November 27.

He said they left him to fall asleep without being cuddled, while together they drank whisky and Coke, “getting drunk, but not too drunk”.

Benham said he smoked some cannabis, which he did regularly.

He recalled letting the dog into the caravan and it jumping up onto the bed, but told police he did not know if Alfie was alive at that point or not.

He said when he woke later that morning Alfie was by his knee with his arm under Benham’s leg, and he was floppy.

He described shaking Alfie but getting no response. He said he bit him in a further attempt to get a response, the jury was told.

He described “patting” the back of Alfie’s head to try to rouse him, but he believed Alfie had died because he had been lying on him.

Benham was shown photographs of Alfie’s injuries and denied causing them or having any idea how they were caused.

He said he always picked Alfie up by the hands and wrists, rather than by lifting him by holding him underneath his arms.

Throughout his interviews, Benham repeatedly said he would “deserve the noose” if he had caused Alfie’s injuries or death.

He also said Hedges would never hurt Alfie.

Neither of them could account for Alfie’s injuries, but both recalled occasions when he had fallen and hurt himself.

Expert examinations

Following Alfie’s death, a number of experts were asked to examine his body to determine the extent of his injuries and the potential cause of them.

A skeletal survey conducted days after he had died revealed he had suffered fractures to his left and right forearms, his ribs, sternum, left leg, and the big toe on his right foot.

A specialist later said there were signs many of the fractures had occurred in the hours before Alfie’s death, with the cause of some “crushing in nature”.

Forensic pathologist Dr Virginia Fitzpatrick-Swallow, who led the medical investigation, also identified 70 visible injuries.

In total there were 31 to his head and neck, including bruising across his face and forehead and multiple scrapes - known as abrasions - to his nose and across the top of his head.

There were 11 injuries to his arms, including dark blue bruises, 17 to his legs, and 11 to his torso, with bruising across his chest and back.

An internal examination also revealed bruising to the inside of Alfie’s lips, which the pathologist said suggested smothering or an attempt at smothering, with scrapes to his nose and mouth potentially explained by Alfie trying to remove a compressive force from his face.

Another specialist said multiple haemorrhages to Alfie’s eye muscles and soft tissue damage were “highly-consistent with direct blunt force trauma”.

Samples of Alfie’s blood and urine also showed traces of cocaine, but forensic scientist Diana Garside said these levels would not have been caused by Alfie ingesting a large quantity of the drug before his death.

She said they “could have arisen from some form of external contact with cocaine powder or residue from ‘crack’ cocaine smoke, or from a contaminated surface”.

She added she could not say whether Alfie would have been experiencing significant effects from cocaine at the time of his death, but she considered this a possibility.

The prosecution says, having considered the reports of her fellow experts, Dr Fitzpatrick-Swallow expresses no doubt that Alfie “came upon his death by unnatural means as a result of the action of another/others”.

“Significantly, there are a large number of injuries which cannot be explained by accidental means and have been caused by another person,” she reported.

“There is evidence of a significant and sustained assault resulting in numerous fractured bones.”

While certain someone was responsible for Alfie’s death, the pathologist could not determine the final cause due to the numerous injuries that could have led to it.

She said Alfie may have been smothered or suffocated, or suffered respiratory failure caused by fat emboli building up in his lungs following trauma to his body.

The jury was told that “the final cause of death is not clear and as such is best recorded as ‘unascertained – unnatural causes’”.

Text messages and previous injuries

The jury was told that on October 15, Hedges and Benham exchanged messages about biting Alfie.

Hedges wrote: “Little sh*t bit my arm this morning f**king hurt.”

Benham responded by suggesting she should bite him back, but not as hard.

Hedges said she tried it and Alfie found it funny.

“Bite hard. Your have to once I bet,” (sic) Benham replied.

Hedges said she did not want to have to do that.

A week later Benham referred to Alfie in texts to Hedges as “your little sod” and said he would “poke him in the ear” after he turned the caravan heater off.

Two weeks before Alfie’s death, Mr Phillips and his mother, Marie Demain, spotted a bruise on the top of Alfie’s ear.

Hedges told them he had fallen down the stairs.

Mrs Demain recalled it looking “really black”, and suggested to Hedges it looked like someone had twisted it. She did not respond to this, the jury was told.

At about the same time, Benham’s mother noticed a bruise that ran along Alfie’s eye.

Benham told her their dog had knocked Alfie into a door frame and he had caught his eye.

Hedges’ friend, Zoe Tritton, also noticed bruising to Alfie.

About a month before he died, she described his ear as “purple”.

Hedges told her that Alfie had bumped it against something while bending over to do the TV buttons at her father’s house.

Miss Tritton also remembered an occasion when Alfie bumped into a door frame at her house, with Hedges remarking that he was “clumsy”.

On November 10, 2020, Hedges took all of her belongings out of Sam Phillips’ caravan, but often returned to visit with Alfie, including three days before his death.

Giving evidence, Mr Phillips said on November 25 his son looked “tired, a bit pasty”, but added: “He was just doing his normal thing - running about, playing with his toys, being happy.”

On Thursday, November 26, Benham’s parents recall him saying that Alfie had caught his fingers in their dog gate, causing bruising to his fingernails.

Benham, of Highstreet Road, Hernhill, and Hedges, of Fillace Park, Yelverton, Devon, deny murder and an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.