Little boy died after man supervising him threw him into couch while mother was at bar, Auckland court hears

Phillip John Welsh appears in the dock at the Auckland High Court.

A man who was charged with murder after killing a toddler in Auckland pleaded guilty to a lesser charge today ahead of his trial.

Phillip John Welsh, 52, admitted to the manslaughter of Malcolm Bell in the High Court in Auckland.

His conviction today means the horror details of what Welsh did can be revealed.

The boy was 17 months old when he died last year and it would later emerge he and his living situation were already on the radar of child protection staff.

The court was told Welsh was angry with the boy’s mother and that he felt like a babysitter while she was away meeting a friend, and then again while she went to a nearby bar.

Crown prosecutor Fiona Culliney said the boy’s mother left at 7.22pm and headed for the Albion Hotel. Malcolm was upset when she left the inner city apartment and was crying, which is when Welsh threw Malcolm onto a couch.

“Mr Welsh picked up Malcolm and threw him with significant force at the couch, he did so out of anger and frustration,” Culliney said.

“When Mr Welsh threw Malcolm, he was more than a metre away from the couch.

"Malcolm hit the back of the couch which has a wooden frame covered by thin foam and fabric. There were no cushions on the couch at the time, which made the couch a harder surface than most couches.”

The boy was immediately unconscious, Culliney told the court.

Prosecutors said Welsh claimed the toddler had hit his head on a door while playing.

An ambulance crew arrived at 7.43pm and officers began treating the boy and noted his “slow and laboured” breathing and that he was “completely floppy and unresponsive”.

Malcolm then spent several days fighting for his life in a critical condition after he was admitted to Auckland’s Starship Hospital with severe head injuries.

“The assault that Mr Welsh inflicted on Malcolm caused critical injuries which ultimately led to Malcolm’s death," Culliney said.

Severe injuries and an investigation

Police were first notified he was there at about 7.30pm on June 23, 2019.

He died June 29.

Police said after the boy died they believed the death was non-accidental. 

“On arrival at Starship Hospital at 7.56pm, Malcolm’s GCS (Glascow Coma Scale) was recorded as three, the lowest possible score,” Culliney told the High Court.

The rapid swelling on the right of his head was “squashing spaces in his brain”.

“Structures normally positioned in the middle of the brain were pushed to the left side by 10mm, the ventricle in the middle of the brain was almost completely flattened.”

Malcolm had surgery to alleviate the pressure in his skull and was placed in intensive care.

It’s where he would spend his next six days alive.

“A final scan on 24 June… showed that the right side of Malcolm’s brain was dying or dead,” the court was told.

A post-mortem exam found he died from a significant blunt force to his head, with bleeding on the coverings of his brain.

It was also established his brain “moved violently” in his skull before rapidly swelling.

An ophthalmologist who examined Malcolm the day after he was injured noted retinal haemorrhages, “too many to count” in both eyes.

"If Malcolm had survived this incident he would have been blinded from these injuries to his eyes which would have formed immediately upon impact,” Culliney said.

“The severity of the haemorrhages in Malcolm’s eyes have been reported in severe or fatal crush injuries or high speed motor vehicle accidents,” she said.

A scene examination had already started while he was in hospital.

Police at the time said the boy’s death was "tragic".

Officers announced in July last year that Welsh had been charged with murder.

They said the charge came after “countless” hours of work by investigators.

Oranga Tamariki said after his death that social workers knew people were worried about Malcolm’s situation and were working to help him and his family before he died.

“The tragic death of Malcolm Bell has affected many and our thoughts are with those who loved him,” Central Auckland regional manager Anna Palmer said last year.

She added Oranga Tamariki would be looking to see if it should have done things differently.

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