Jail for the car seat crusher

A son of a former Tory minister who crushed his partner’s three year-old boy to death by ramming his car seat against him was jailed for seven and a half years.

Alfie Lamb had been put in the footwell of the Audi A4 behind front seat passenger Stephen Waterson, 26.

Waterson moved the electrically operated seat onto the distressed toddler to give himself more leg room, the Old Bailey heard.

When Alfie sobbed he did not have enough space Waterson snarled: ‘I’m not being told what to do by a three-year-old,’ and pushed the seat back again ‘in a fit of childish temper’.

His mother Adrian Hoare, 24, left him in the footwell as the car continued to the flat Waterson owned in Adams Way, Croydon.

The couple realised something was desperately wrong with the ‘happy, active, smiley’ boy and Waterson pulled him out of the car frantically trying to revive him.

He called the emergency services, pretending he had just been driving by the scene.

Alfie suffered a massive cardiac arrest and his life support machine was turned off three days later.

A pathologist found the youngster died from crush asphyxia and brain damage caused by the car seat.

The injuries he had suffered are more typically seen in road traffic accidents.

Waterson tried to exploit his ‘powerful parents’ – in particular his adopted father the ex-Tory MP and lawyer Nigel Waterson – to make himself ‘untouchable’ after the incident.

The other occupants of the car were bullied into giving his bogus account of what happened and he repeatedly used an alias when visiting the hospital and speaking to police to try and fool them into thinking he was nothing to do with it.

But officers began to untangle the couple’s web of lies after Hoare’s sister handed police a recording of the mother confessing ‘everyone had to keep their mouth shut because of him [Waterson]’.

Telephone evidence revealed how Waterson had been trying to sell the Audi and was messaging four other women at the time Hoare was begging him to come to the hospital to see the dying child.

When police searched the flat where he lived with Hoare and her son, they found two children’s car seats which could have saved Alfie’s life.

Waterson had faced a retrial for manslaughter after an Old Bailey jury failed to reach a verdict after the first trial in February this year.

Hoare was cleared of manslaughter following the first trial but convicted of cruelty to a child and assaulting one of the other passengers.

She was jailed for a total of two years and nine months in May.

Waterson appeared in the dock and remained expressionless but looked up at Nigel Waterson as he was led down to the cells.

Jailing Waterson for a total of seven and a half years Mr Justice Kerr said: ‘I’m sentencing you for three crimes manslaughter by gross negligence conspiring to pervert the course of justice and intimidating a witness.

‘Alfie Lamb died aged three on 4 February 2018 as a result of injuries cause dby you three days earlier

‘He died of asphyxia caused by you moving your seat back and this was gross negligence.

‘You pleaded guilty to the charge of gross negligence manslaughter December 2019.

‘You were previously charged with manslaughter in your defence statement you denied any responsibility for Alfie’s death including denying being responsible for him being in the foot of the car.

‘You now accept that you owed Alfie a duty of care that you moved your car seat back onto Alfie causing grave injuries and that this was gross negligence.

‘I sentence you on the basis that you did not intend to harm Alfie.

‘I do not find that you were annoyed with Alfie and did so because of your annoyance.

‘I am satisfied so that I am sure that albeit not in anger but for your own comfort you moved the car-seat back twice and not once.

‘I don’t accept the basis of your plea.

‘The risk to Alfie was considerable but not as high as the risk of death.

‘You did play a leading role in the offending.

‘Alfie was particularly vulnerable because of his young age he was moaning and tired when he got into the footwell which are aggravating features.

‘You have seven convictions for 13 offences including assault.

‘Your remorse comes late.

‘I accept you have a difficult upbringing and that you have tried to use your time in prison constructively.

‘You are not all bad I’ve seen the different sides of your character.

‘Bright and loving but also cunning, manipulative, dishonest, disloyal, deceitful, controlling, threatening and sometimes violent.

‘You began a campaign of lies.

‘You orchestrated the campaign of lies assisted by Ms Hoare who had the misfortune of falling in love with you and was prepared to lie to protect you and herself

‘When the conspiracy began to falter because of the bravery of Ashleigh Jeffrey, you resorted to violence threatening that you could make people disappear.

‘You persisted in misleading the police yourself.

‘You would have concealed the truth forever if you could.

‘Time and resources of the police were wasted.

‘You drove the conspiracy because you wanted to throw the police off the scent.

‘You helped a friend of yours to threaten and beat up marcus lamb in crystal palace park. You decided Marcus Lamb had grassed you up.

‘You got your friend Gary to do most of the beating and threatening but you also took part yourself in the violence.

‘It is very sad that Marcus was your friend and kin and the filming of the incident was gratuitously degrading, he was left traumatised though I accept not permanently injured.’

Waterson met Hoare, who left school aged 16 to train as a hairdresser, while living in Blackpool.

They had a tumultuous relationship.

Police were called after one row back in 2016 when Hoare, then four months pregnant, accused Waterson of cheating whilst the pair were out in his car.

Waterson started driving erratically, and threatened: ‘I’ll kill myself, you and that baby.’

The man believed to be Alfie’s father, Hoare’s ex Richard Lamb, was jailed for three years in April 2017 for arson after setting fire to the flat where she and Alfie were living.

Waterson has three convictions for assault, including two on an ex-girlfriend Donna Newall.

He pinned her to the floor when she quizzed him about seeing other women before later throwing water over her and biting her nose.

On the day Alfie died Waterson and Hoare had been out shopping in Sutton with Hoare’s friend Emilie Williams and another man, Waterson’s step-brother and Hoare’s ex Marcus Lamb.

Mr Lamb took the wheel to drive the car back to Croydon, even though he was disqualified.

He later told how Hoare had been shouting at Alfie during the trip and both she and Waterson ‘told him to shut up’ during the journey home.

Mr Lamb said: ‘I heard him screaming. I didn’t know what was wrong with him. I think I heard him say ”Mummy.

‘I just heard Adrian telling him to shut up.”

Mr Lamb said Waterson also shouted at the little boy to ‘shut up.’

‘He didn’t be quiet and Alfie kept screaming,’ Lamb said.

He then heard the ominous he whine of the electric motor as Waterson moved his seat backwards.

‘I didn’t see how far back the seat moved. He moved it back after Alfie stared screaming,’ said Mr Lamb.

Emilie Williams said: ‘I heard him coughing then he went quiet.’

Emergency services were called at 7.23pm that evening and paramedics arrived to find Mr Lamb giving Alfie CPR on the instructions of the operator.

Waterson had already failed to revive Alfie and had gone into the flat.

When the paramedics arrived Mr Lamb followed him in.

Mr Lamb said: ‘He started bawling out tears, saying: ‘What have I done.”

Waterson repeatedly used his birth name, Alex Richardson, to try and fool doctors into thinking he was Hoare’s cousin during hospital visits and brazenly kept up the ruse when making his first statement to police.

Both he and Hoare later claimed that Alfie had been injured in a taxi which had driven off.

Waterson later resorted to attacking Mr Lamb to keep him in line.

He shoved the 22-year-old’s head to the ground and held it there calling him a ‘grass’ while filming him struggle on his mobile phone.

But even by the evening of February 2, Hoare texted him saying: ‘They know we are lying.’

They were both forced to admit they had been in the Audi with Alfie but Waterson insisted the injuries to Alfie were not caused when he moved the chair back.

Hoare denied putting her relationship with Waterson above Alfie, telling jurors she loved them both.

‘I did not blame anyone to begin with,’ she said.

‘Knowing how it happened it just makes sense with the chair, he is the one who moved it.’

Hoare said when Waterson first moved his chair back she asked him to take it forward again because Alfie was crying and he did so.

She told the court: ‘After Alfie said that he did not have room for his legs he made a comment about how he was not being told what to do by a three year old, and he moved his chair back again.’

The hairdresser vowed to stay faithful to the killer in letters sent to him from her cell.

In the letters read to the court today (thurs) Hoare said: ‘We love you, not just me but our little munchkin as well.

‘He’ll be looking down on you every day protecting you, you’re not the only one not sleeping.

‘I’ve hardly slept since being here which don’t help, just makes it seem even longer.

‘You’re not going to lose me I promise, I know how much you loved our little chubba.

‘He loved you just as much as you loved him, his cheeky little smile when you two were up to something.’

Waterson and Hoare, both of Croydon, south London, both denied manslaughter.

Waterson also denied intimidating Marcus Lamb while Hoare denied further charges of child cruelty and an assault relating to Emilie Williams.

The pair along with Emilie Williams admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice by making false statements to police.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said today (thurs): ‘The defendant showed a blatant disregard for a very high risk of death and this was not a lapse in care on Mr Waterson’s part.

‘Importantly CCTV showed that all four had travelled to Adam’s Way in Croydon in an Audi vehicle.

‘The footage showed the vehicle had been driven by Mr Lamb with Mr Waterson as his front seat passenger with the two women in the back.

‘Alfie had been fit and well and it was during that fateful car journey that his chest had been compressed, sending him from an active toddler to a seriously ill and brain-damaged one.

‘Those severe and irreparable changes were caused by the front seat of the Audi vehicle being moved further into the rear side at a time when Mr Waterson knew all too well, because he had caused him to be there, that Alfie was in that footwell.

‘This movement of the seat at a time when Alfie was tired from the afternoon shopping trip and already distressed was a deliberate act by Mr Waterson who said he wanted more leg room for himself.

‘He in a blatant disregard for Alfie’s life made room to stretch out in the front of the car at the expense of breathing room for Alfie at the back.

‘Each of those in the car gave false accounts of what happened in the car leading up to the 999 call.

‘All made false witness statements to the police.

‘The clear purpose of those lies was to protect Mr Waterson.

‘Each of the three was charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

‘[They were] intimidated by Mr Waterson.

‘Mr Waterson held Mr Lamb to the ground with his foot on his head and called him a “grass.”

‘Mr Lamb’s humiliation was compounded by the fact that the incident was recorded by Mr Waterson on his mobile phone.

‘At the trial before Mr Waterson was convicted of witness intimidation.

‘There’s a very real difference from a child sitting in a seat of a car, this was a situation where he had created a dangerous situation in putting Alfie in the footwell of the car and the evidence it shows this was situation he had created on previous occasions.

‘Alfie was already upset and moaning before the seat had moved and saying that he didn’t have enough room.

‘Mr Waterson had created an already dangerous situation and exacerbated that situation.’

DCI Simon Harding said: ‘I don’t think anyone can imagine the pain Alfie went through,’ he said.

‘For a three-and-a-half-year-old boy to be as vulnerable as he was to be crushed by something so strong and no-one helping – it’s a sickening way to die.’

He said Waterson an ‘arrogant’ man who had told a ‘barrage of lies’.

He added that the decision to also charge Hoare with manslaughter stemmed from her failure to act when her son was in distress as well as her ‘continual lying’ afterwards.

Waterson’s barrister described his attempts to conceal his guilt as ‘deplorable’ during mitigation.

Tana Adkin QC argued his adopted family situation had caused ‘difficulties’ in his life.

She said: ‘He was adopted by the Waterson family at the age of eight but continued to have quite a considerable degree of contact with his birth family and that it would seem certainly caused difficulties in his life.

‘He has since Alfie’s death done his best in custody to improve himself because when something like this happens it’s very easy to deny any responsibility but Mr Waterson hasn’t done that, he’s tried to educate himself while in prison.

‘He wanted to create a family for himself and his genuine and true feelings of love for Adrian are evident from the messages we saw during the trial.

‘Whilst thoughtless and or selfish he didn’t intend to hurt him and when he was asked to move the seat he did.

‘His protection of himself is deplorable in my submission because he should have been thinking about Alfie but nevertheless it’s had an overwhelming and everlasting effect on Mr Waterson.’

Alfie’s aunt Ashleigh Jeffrey sobbed in the well of the court as her impact statement was read

The statement read: ‘Adrian Hoare is my sister and we’ve been very close since we were teenagers.

‘When she had her son she had the most amazing bond with him, you could see how much they loved each other.

‘Wherever she went Alfie was with her. When I met Alfie for the first time it felt different, to see their special relationship felt really amazing.

‘When I heard [Alfie died] I was desperate to find out the truth of what had happened to him.

‘Children don’t just die in a car-seat.

‘I tried to get her away from Stephen as I realised he was controlling her and asking her to tell lies about what happened.

‘She was under his control.

‘She left my house to go with him and didn’t even say goodbye.

‘Adrian has been vulnerable her whole life and has never had any stability.

‘Stephen told her he wanted to marry her and she hung on his every word.

‘She knew his past but thought their relationship would be different.

‘Alfie didn’t have everything other three-year-olds have but he was always wanting to play and had a great imagination. The impact of his death has been indescribable.

‘The biggest thing for me is that I have a son who looks so much like Alfie. I have really bad nightmares about Alfie.’

‘My son is now at the age Alfie was when he died. The trauma of going through the trial earlier this year was horrific. I had to give evidence.

‘I felt so nervous I felt sick. I was just so very sad about the whole situation.

‘I hope Stephen realises it’s not just Alfie he’s taken away from us, he’s taken me away from my family because I’m no longer myself.’

Waterson, of Croydon, south London, denied but was convicted of manslaughter.

The killer pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation.

He was sentenced to a total of seven and a half years.
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