A two-year-old boy who died after being beaten by his drug dealer dad was found with cocaine in his system, a court has heard. Raphael Kennedy, 31, is accused of killing Dylan Tiffin-Brown. The toddler, who suffered catastrophic internal injuries, was found lifeless by paramedics at a home in Arthur Street, Northampton, on December 15 last year. He was rushed to Northampton General Hospital at 12.30pm but was pronounced dead just 30 minutes later. A post-mortem revealed he had multiple cuts to his liver and had suffered catastrophic internal bleeding.
Northampton Crown Court heard the toddler had ingested cocaine shortly before he died. Forensic toxicologist Dr Peter Sidebotham told the court Dylan must have ingested cocaine “four to 12 hours” prior to his death. He said: “I found less than five nanograms of cocaine per millilitre of blood [...] but the level of cocaine would have been higher at the time of death.”The jury also heard how hundreds of pounds worth of crack, cannabis and heroin were seized from Kennedy’s house by police, as well as plastic wraps, microscales and a suspected “burner” mobile phone for dealing drugs.
The court also viewed two video clips of Dylan downloaded from Kennedy’s phone by police. In one, Dylan appears to be sleeping on his feet in a bedroom before Kennedy, who is filming, shouts “wake up” at the toddler. In another, Dylan is shown crying and walking around 10 paces behind Kennedy, who is filming and tells Dylan to “walk mate” and “keep up”.Police were unable to determine when the videos were taken. At an earlier hearing, the jury was told that Dylan had rib fractures dating back weeks before his death. The jury heard how the boy had an extensive series of rib fractures that would have been inflicted hours, days and weeks before his death which were “likely not accidental”.
The court heard the expert evidence of Professor Chas Mangham, who examined a series of eight fractures to the tot’s ribcage. While one set of fractures would have occurred “between three to six” hours before his death, Professor Mangham said that another fracture was caused “just days” earlier and another set was “up to ten weeks old”.Dylan’s mother Tayla Tiffin, 18, also told the court that her son would always cry after staying with his father and that he “clung to her” when he went home. Earlier jurors heard Kennedy, who only found out Dylan was his son two months before his death, moaned about having to change his nappy. Kennedy, of Arthur Street, Northampton, denies murder. The trial continues.