July 19, 2021- 5:00 p.m.
Chelsea Cuthbertson has been found guilty of manslaughter. She denied shaking Malakai Watts despite doctors concluding the tragic infant suffered a cardiac arrest which was most likely caused by a “non-accidental injury”.
Malakai was “grey from head to toe” when police arrived at Cuthbertson’s flat following her 999 call on February 2, 2019.
He was rushed from the property in Hythe, near Southampton, Hants, to Southampton General Hospital but tragically died four days later after he was taken off life support.
Giving evidence, Cuthbertson insisted she never hurt Malakai but had no explanation for his injuries – claiming she had gone outside to smoke a cannabis joint for 15 minutes and returned to find that her baby boy had turned blue.
But today, following a five-week trial at Winchester Crown Court, Hants, Cuthbertson was convicted of manslaughter and now faces a jail sentence.
Jurors delivered a majority verdict after 13 hours and 57 minutes of deliberation. The jury had unanimously decided she was not guilty of murder.
Some of those text messages were read out in court by Ms Howes, with Cuthbertson writing, “I’m sick of doing everything and being in all the time”, “my home isn’t a hotel and it’s just going back to when you lived here before” and “people make time for their family, you never do”.
She said Cuthbertson was frustrated with Mr Watts because she felt he did not help around the house and with the children, particularly when he returned to work shortly after Malakai was born.
She previously told the court she would smoke cannabis every day because “it chills me out”.
Despite admitting the drug “mongs you out” she continued to smoke regularly while caring for her eldest daughter as well as Malakai and his twin.
Before Malakai’s death, Cuthbertson sent texts complaining she was “sick” of being in all the time with her kids and that her baby was “whingey” and “hard work”.
In a text to her friend five days, before the baby was injured, Cuthbertson said: “(Malakai) is so whingey, definitely hard work but (the other twin) is easy – I would cry if they were both like it.”
The court heard this text was sent on January 28, 2019 – around the same time that the post-mortem report showed Malakai suffered a rib injury.
In one text to Mr Watts, Cuthbertson described another of her children as “a little cow” and a “little sh*t”.
It read: “(The child) might have a bruise on her cheek tomorrow – the little cow took my glitter eye shadow.
“I went to take her to her bedroom but the little sh*t was all slippy so I dropped her and she fell on her face but on her cheek side.”
The court heard Cuthbertson had previously given evidence to a Family Court that she felt abandoned, exploited and left alone with the children.
She also spoke openly about assaulting her first born child when he was just six months old.
She admitted pushing down on his forehead “so he stopped crying”, so hard it left a red mark and he had to be taken to hospital.
