22 hours ago
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A woman has been found guilty of the manslaughter of her four-month-old daughter, who died after being violently shaken.
Melissa Wilband, 28, was arrested after her daughter, Lexi Wilband collapsed at the family home at Newent in the Forest of Dean during the first Covid lockdown.
Tests showed Lexi suffered bleeding on her brain, which the court had been told was probably caused by being violently shaken shortly before she collapsed and on at least one earlier occasion.
The jury at Bristol crown court heard that Wilband became pregnant with Lexi while on a break from her then-partner Jack Wheeler and had tried to deceive him into believing he was the father by presenting him with a fake paternity test.
Wheeler, 31, of Ledbury, Herefordshire, was also accused of manslaughter but the charge was dropped during the trial. The jury found him not guilty of causing or allowing Lexi’s death.
Giving evidence in court, Wilband described how she had been in a relationship with Wheeler for about three years but Lexi was conceived with another man when they had separated.
The court heard she faked a DNA test during her pregnancy, stating Wheeler was “100%” the “father” of her then unborn child. The word “father” was spelt incorrectly and he became suspicious.
After Lexi was born, a genuine DNA test found Wheeler was not biologically related to the baby. In court, Wilband admitted faking the document, telling the jury: “I wanted him to be Lexi’s dad.”
When asked about the night of the baby’s collapse on 12 April 2020, Wilband claimed Lexi had hurt herself while in a baby bouncer.
Lexi was taken by ambulance to Gloucestershire Royal hospital before being transferred to Bristol children’s hospital, where she died on 18 April.
Paramedics who went to the child’s aid noted that Wilband was rolling a cigarette and using her mobile telephone when answering questions. Wilband was asked by medical staff whether she would like to hold her baby before she was intubated but she declined. A staff nurse held Lexi’s hand throughout the night she died.
During the trial, the jury heard that Wilband used to use cocaine while in bed, with Lexi in the Moses basket alongside her.
Miranda Moore KC, representing Wheeler, suggested to Wilband that she had shaken her daughter. She replied: “My daughter was my life. I never killed my daughter, I am telling you.”
Outside court, Det Insp Adam Stacey of Gloucestershire police, said: “Wilband told lie after lie after lie – right from Lexi’s conception, and all the way throughout the pregnancy.
“These lies continued and were made to medical professionals trying to save Lexi’s life, to the police, and all the way through to her giving evidence in court.
“The jury saw those lies for what they were. Lexi should be five years old now with her whole future ahead of her. She was shaken by someone who should have been protecting her, someone who should have put her safety and wellbeing above everything else.”
In a statement, Wheeler’s family said: “Obviously we are relieved that this trial is over and Jack has been found not guilty on both counts. It has been a difficult five years. But we do not forget that a little girl he loved as his own has lost her life.”
Wilband was granted conditional bail and will be sentenced on 22 May.
