THE father of a baby boy who suffered severe and multiple injuries while in his care has pleaded guilty to the child’s manslaughter.

But 31-year-old Reece Martin Kelly, who is accused of shaking the four-month-old infant violently, denies murdering his son Dallas, saying that while he did shake the child he did so "gently."

The baby’s mother Georgia Wright, 23 from Workington, denies "causing or allowing her son’s death while both defendants deny an allegation of cruelty, including by exposing their son to illicit drugs use in their Workington home.

As the second day of their trial  at Carlisle Crown Court got underway, Richard Littler KC set out the prosecution case for the jury of ten men and two women.

The baby boy died in October, 2021, after sustaining severe injuries at the Workington home where he lived with his parents, the defendants, the court heard.

The barrister began: “Reece Kelly picked up Dallas and shook him violently, intending at the time to cause Dallas at least really serious injury; as a direct result of that shaking, injuries were sustained by Dallas and those were serious and significant injuries and caused to Dallas caused his death."

There was no dispute that the injuries sustained by the baby led to his death. Mr Littler said that Kelly had indicated yesterday that he wished to plead guilty to the manslaughter charge, accepting his “unlawful act” towards his son.

“Whilst it is accepted that the shaking caused the death of Dallas,” said Mr Littler, “Reece Kelly denies intending to cause really serious harm to Dallas when he shook him.

“This case is about the intention that Reece Kelly had towards Dallas. In short, the prosecution suggests that the injuries sustained by Dallas was so extensive and severe that they can only be explained away by Reece Kelly intending really serious injury.

“He used, say the prosecution, considerable and severe force towards Dallas, squeezing and gripping four-month-old Dallas when he picked him up; and forcefully and vigorously shaking him, causing Dallas’s head on his neck to oscillate backwards and forwards, causing severe head injury and ultimately death.”

Referring to Kelly’s guilty plea to manslaughter, the barrister said of the defendant, formerly of Hunday Court, Workington: “The plea of guilty is a step closer to the truth but, the prosecution suggests, it still falls far short of what actually happened in this case.

“The crown’s case is that Reece Kelly murdered four-month-old Dallas because when he shook him and caused those injuries to him he must have intended him at least really serious harm."

Mr Littler then addressed the jury about the allegation faced by Wright, that she allowed or caused her son’s death.

He said: “They lived together and she, Georgia Wright, must have known the risks of leaving her small baby son in the care of Reece Kelly; she knew the risks and she chose simply not to protect Dallas from that risk.”

The barrister went on to outline the prosecution case relating to the cruelty allegation faced by both defendants, saying that they were living in a terraced house in Workington in 2021 when their son died.

The jury would hear that the defendants chose to sleep in a downstairs room, while Dallas slept in his cot in an upstairs room.

The baby was left there “in distress” and “unsupervised” while downstairs his parents took drugs, the jury heard.

Despite hearing their child’s distress via a baby monitor, they “chose to do nothing.”  “Drugs came before food,” said Mr Littler.

The court heard that both parents regularly used illicit substances, including cocaine, cannabis, and prescription drugs that included gabapentin. Even as his son was in a Newcastle hospital dying, said Mr Littler, Kelly continued using drugs.

The court heard also about the injuries sustained by Dallas, who was rushed to hospital on October 15, 2021, after Reece Kelly made a 999 call for an ambulance. The baby died at Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle four days later.

The cause of death was “severe traumatic head injury.” An otherwise perfectly well baby, Dallas suffered bleeding on the brain, bleeding within his eyes and six rib fractures.

Also found on his torso, the jury heard, were small circular bruises. Those injuries were not consistent, a medical expert had judged, with the attempts to resuscitate the baby boy.

The rib fractures were consistent with “forceful compression,” said Mr Littler. There was also medical evidence, continued the barrister, that Dallas had suffered a rib fracture six to seven weeks before his death.

“It would have caused pain and distress to this baby boy – pain and distress that the prosecution suggests that the parents would, or should, have been aware of. No medical treatment was sought for this.”

There was also evidence of an earlier brain bleed.

The jury was given a summary of Kelly’s police interview after his arrest, when he told officers he had gone to his son because he was making a croaking noise. He said he had wiped the child’s face, and then shook him “gently.”

He denied picking the child up but then said he placed his hand “gently” on the child’s chest before “shaking him with a bit more force.” Mr Littler continued: “The prosecution say that Reece Kelly did something far worse; far more violent and severe to Dallas than he maintained.”

The jury then heard that the defendants, at the time of their son’s death, were living a “chaotic lifestyle.” He said: “Both put themselves and their addictions first.” Caring for their child came a “very poor second,” he told the jury.

There was a reference in one message from Wright to a friend to her relationship with Kelly being “toxic,” the court heard.  By October 14, the day before their son was taken to hospital, they were not talking to each other.

The trial continues.