Pair found guilty of causing death of five-month-old girl

Rebecca Grocott and Joshua Collard were found guilty of multiple offences against the girl.

Stafford Crown Court (PA Archive)

A man and woman have been found guilty of causing the death of a five-month-old girl.

The youngster was found to have multiple rib, collarbone and femur fractures as well as severe trauma to the side of her head after she died on March 1 2020, Staffordshire Police said.

Joshua Collard and Rebecca Grocott said they did not know how the injuries were sustained and later denied harming her.

But, after a five-week trial at Stafford Crown Court, Collard, 30, and Grocott, 27, were found guilty on Tuesday of causing the girl’s death and several other offences, police said.

Detective Constable Emily Hanlon, of Staffordshire Police’s Child Protection and Exploitation Team, said: “This was a truly tragic case in which [a] five-month-old [girl] died as a result of the actions of two people…

“I would like to thank all of those involved in securing justice for [the girl].”

The trial heard that paramedics were called on February 27 2020 and they then called police to report that the girl was in cardiac arrest.

Paramedics treated her in an ambulance but she later died in hospital.

Following an investigation into her death and a post-mortem examination, the pair were arrested on March 25 2020.

Collard, of Stafford, and Grocott, of Stone, were found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child, causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child, and two counts of assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting or abandoning a child or young person to cause unnecessary suffering or injury.

The pair will be sentenced at the same court on July 27.