Child killers get 38 years

A sadistic child killer has been jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years after he was secretly recorded by his girlfriend torturing her two-year-old son.

Phylesia Shirley, 24, used her phone to try and find out if Kemar Brown, 28, was being unfaithful and captured his horrific abuse of Kyrell Matthews.

Jurors were visibly upset as they heard a series of audio files during the five week trial in which Kyrell screamed as he was beaten repeatedly while Brown shouted ‘shut up’.

He also cruelly mimics the child’s cries as he slaps him and snarls ‘you have to ruin the fun’ in Shirley’s one-bedroom flat in Thornton Heath, southeast London.

Shirley did nothing to stop Brown and Kyrell suffered 41 rib fractures and lacerations to his liver by the time he was finally taken to hospital on 20 October 2019.

He would have been sobbing in agony for at least a month.

The Recorder of London judge Mark Lucraft, QC, called the abuse ‘a truly shocking catalogue of injuries for a two-year-old boy’.

‘You should have been caring for this two-year-old boy not abusing him.’ he told the couple.

‘Kyrell would have been in significant pain.

‘Neither of you did anything to help him.

‘He should have been cared for he should have felt safe and secure.’

Judge Lucraft added that a parent’s role was to ‘love and protect their child.’

‘And you did neither when it really mattered.’

To Shirley, the judge added: ‘By failing to intervene you encouraged the acts.

‘Knowing that Brown was hitting Kyrell you continued to leave him in Brown’s care.’

Brown denied but was convicted of murder and causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child.

Shirley was convicted of manslaughter and admitted allowing the death of a child and allowing serious physical harm to a child.

She jailed for 13 years.

Kyrell’s father, Kyle Matthews said in a statement: “I trusted when he was not with me and my family he was in a safe place with his mother and her partner

Prosecutor Ed Brown said: ‘He feels guilt himself as a result of what has happened not, he says, being able to save his son as his dad.

‘He will miss those milestones that should have taken place in Kyrell’s life such as birthdays, fathers’ day and Christmas.’

The little boy’s grandfather, Karl Matthews, said: ‘He [Kyrell] was not a piece of furniture to be abused or discarded.

‘We really wish you could all have seen Kyrell as the little boy we loved who had such bright eyes and the most infectious smile.’

Five months before he was killed, Kyrell was taken to hospital with a head injury and medics launched an investigation.

But Shirley and Brown claimed Kyrell had accidentally fallen from a sofa and banged his head against the metal base of a high chair.

Their story was accepted – even after doctors at Croydon University Hospital ordered an investigation.

Social workers carried out at least one follow-up visit to the flat but the couple hid their abuse of Kyrell.

Both cannabis addicts and had been smoking shortly before Shirley made a non emergency call which alerted paramedics to her son’s fatal injuries.

She had been out to buy drugs earlier that day.

Brown did not give evidence but his barrister claimed his partner killed Kyrell after she was given incorrect advice from NHS 111 on how to resuscitate the little boy.

Shirley, who came to the UK from Jamaica aged seven, worked as a part-time clerical worker for Croydon’s child services before leaving to look after Kyrell.

Brown has previously been slapped with a six-year sentence for a ‘serious’ robbery in 2011 when he was a juvenile.

He was also prohibited from seeing a former partner under a non-molestation order after attacking her at her home having lost his temper, the court heard.

Shirley, who also refused to give evidence, was heavily pregnant by Brown when she first appeared in court in December 2020 and has since given birth to their baby.

While under investigation for murdering Kyrell, Brown he had travelled to Northampton with four other men to raid a cannabis farm.

The two Romanians men living there fought back and armed police were deployed after terrified neighbours rang in.

Brown had claimed he went out to the shops and found Kyrell sleeping when he returned.

He told police who arrived at the scene that the toddler began to twitch and he believed he was having a nightmare.

Shirley had calmly dialled 111 instead of 999 to say he was ‘acting funny’, his body was floppy, his eyes were rolling back and he was having problems with his breathing.

She was advised to carry out CPR until the ambulance crew came.

Kyrell was rushed to Croydon University Hospital and despite extensive efforts by medical staff to save him he was pronounced dead at 4.15pm.

Mr Brown told jurors: ‘Kyrell had his ribs crushed or broken by blows within the four weeks before October 20.

‘At least one of the defendants plainly inflicted a significant number of injuries in at least five separate incidents in the four weeks leading up to Kyrell’s death.

‘The pain and distress in those four weeks when he was abused was brought vividly to the fore by those harrowing recordings.

‘On October 20, his ribs were crushed once more – it killed him.’

Mr Brown added: ‘Phylesia Shirley was observed as being distressed in the flat and at the hospital as well.

‘On being told of the decision to pronounce life extinct, she became hysterical.

‘Descriptions of Kemar Brown’s demeanour at the flat and hospital are those of a calm person, slightly disengaged somewhat unaffected, it appeared, as the emerging tragedy became obvious.

‘The CCTV at the hospital shows him on his mobile phone whilst the A&E staff were trying to treat Kyrell and save his life.

‘Brown’s reaction, or lack of it, the prosecution say, you may think is a surprising one if the child’s terrible condition and death was a surprise to him.’

Kyrell did not attend nursery, so was in the full-time care of Shirley at the time.

Brown spent the majority of his time at her flat, sleeping over regularly, and had ‘constant and consistent care’ of the child.

Jurors were played excerpts of the audio recordings, from June and July 2019, of Brown telling Kyrell to ‘shut up’, or similar commands, followed by hitting sounds.

Phylesia can be heard saying: ‘What did he do, what he do now?’

In the first clip, Kemar can be heard repeatedly singing: ‘Phylesia get ungrateful when she don’t get her own way.’

Jurors listened to sounds of Kyrell crying, followed by banging, after which the toddler begins to scream.

Kemar can then be heard to say ‘Shut it’ and ‘Are you listening?’

In another recording played to the jury, a loud bang can be heard before Kyrell begins to loudly cry.

Brown then says ‘Shut up’, then Kyrell cries as if he is being repeatedly hit at the same time.

He then repeatedly says ‘Shut up’ and ‘Shush’, as the sounds of blows repeatedly came out of the court’s speakers.

Shirley was then heard saying, ‘Ky shut the blood-t, shut up, what the f-ck you crying for man? Shut up,’ followed by the sound of slapping as the child continued to cry.

‘She was prepared to ignore warnings about Kemar Brown to keep the relationship with the man who was, to her knowledge, abusing her own 2 year old child,’ Mr Brown said.

‘Indeed, you may well conclude that she joined in in the abuse.

‘This additional evidence shows that she was prepared to reject what should have been motherly care in protecting Kyrell, in favour of abuse by her, his own mother, and in favour of the abuse carried out by man she knew was abusing her child.’

Mark McDonald, for Brown, said that his client did not intend to kill Kyrell.

Louise Sweet, defending Shirley said: ‘She did not and does not shy away from accepting her part.

‘It was her duty as a mother to protect her child and she did not do so and she will have to live with that and the guilt of losing Kyrell for the rest of her life.’

Shirley, of Bensam Manor Road, Thornton Heath, south London, denied murder but admitted allowing the death of a child and allowing serious physical harm to a child.

She received 13 years in jail with a five-year sentence to run concurrently for causing or allowing serious physical harm.

Brown, of Grange Park Road, Thornton Heath, south London, denied murder, causing or allowing the death of a child and causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child.

He was given a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years, as well as a concurrent sentence of 8 years or causing or allowing serious physical harm.

They showed no trace of emotion as they were led to the cells.