12:21pm Thursday 29th July 2010
© Press Association 2011
A couple who brutally murdered a toddler they were paid to look after have been jailed for life.
Kayley Boleyn, 19, and 25-year-old Christopher Taylor inflicted more than 70 injuries on three-year-old Ryan Lovell-Hancox.
The boy lived with the couple at their flat in Bilston, West Midlands, for a month before he was rushed to hospital in a coma having suffered a massive brain haemorrhage.
They had been paid £40 a week by the boy's mother and Boleyn's cousin, 21-year-old Amy Hancox, who felt she could no longer look after the child because of her own mental problems, but Boleyn "abused the trust" of Ryan's parents, who had no idea of their son's suffering.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Taylor and Boleyn made Ryan's life hell in the weeks before his death on Christmas Eve 2008, forcing the youngster to live in "squalor", and providing better care for two dogs they had brought into the home.
The court heard the violence shown towards Ryan was not born from a "flash of temper" but was sustained and horrific.
Two days before Ryan's death, Miss Hancox tried to batter down the door to Boleyn's home to see her son but Boleyn, who like her boyfriend was addicted to cannabis and alcohol, refused to let the mother in as Ryan's face and body was covered in bruising.
Mrs Justice Macur ordered Boleyn to serve at least 13 years in prison while Taylor was told his minimum term would be 15 years.
It was revealed during the 45-minute hearing that Boleyn, who along with Taylor was found guilty in March of murder and child cruelty, was known to social services. A social worker even attended the home she shared with Taylor on Slim Avenue the day the toddler was rushed to hospital in a coma. Wolverhampton City Council said it expects to publish the findings of its serious case review this autumn.
Ryan's mother and his father, 24-year-old John Lovell, wept throughout the hearing and a statement read out on behalf of Ryan's family said: "We think about Ryan every day and we realise that nothing will bring him back. We hope that Christopher Taylor and Kayley Boleyn will think about what they have done for the rest of their lives in the same way that we think about losing him."
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