Hundreds call for justice for suffocated toddler found surrounded by faeces

'We as adults and parents are suppose to protect and care for these children not lock them away in a room,' says Joshua Elvidge's grandmother, Amy Kelley

Ellyah Elvidge suffocated (Change.org)

Hundreds of people have signed a petition calling for justice for a two-year-old who suffocated as he tried to escape from a room in his home that was covered in dirty nappies and animal faeces.

Ellyah Elvidge was found with his head lodged in hole cut into a piece of plywood that was serving as a makeshift baby gate at his home in AuSable Fork, New York.

His mother Patricia Giddings, 21, and her 24-year-old boyfriend Brandon Bushey, who was not the boy’s father, have been charged with criminally negligent homicide.

After finding the toddler on the night of 9 August, the pair rushed the toddler to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead from asphyxiation on 9 August.

Hospital staff notified New York State Troopers that the toddler had died and an investigation was launched.

Giddings and Bushey were arrested last month and charged with criminally negligent homicide - usually the lowest category for an offense that results in the death of another person.

"The risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation," New York’s state penal code says.

Investigators described conditions at the home as “deplorable” at Black Brook Town Court last month. They said dirty nappies, animal faeces and broken toys were on the floor of the room where Elvidge was trapped, according to US news channel, WCAX.

Prosecutors also described the room a “holding pen” in court.

Speaking after the hearing, the boy’s father told WCAS that the conditions were “sickening.”

Joshua Elvidge said he wished that Giddings “could look me in the eyes because what they described, in my eyes, is that he was living like a pig. Like an animal.”

He added: "I just want her to look me in the eyes and say it was all right and that it was OK for my son to be living like that and that she was confident he was safe."

Mr Elvidge’s mother Amy Kelley has started a petition calling for justice when she next comes to court with Bushey.

“We as adults and parents are suppose to protect and care for these children not lock them away in a room because we don't have the time or just don't want to deal with them at that moment because of other stuff going in in our life,” she wrote on Change.org. “Please give and support Justice for Ellyah James Elvidge.”

More than 700 people had signed the petition at the time of publication.