A STARVING and abused Doncaster toddler who was eventually killed when her spine was snapped in two would have suffered great pain, a murder trial has been told.
Doctors discovered around 40 injuries to the body of 16-month-old Amy Howson including six fractures to her arms and legs, a cracked rib and a severed spine after her death on December 23 last year.
Virtually none of the injuries the baby from Edl
ington sustained before her death could have been self-inflicted or accidental, medical experts told a jury at Leeds Crown Court.
Professor Peter Vanesiz said Amy' s spine had been broken in half.
"Amy would have been in extreme distress. She would have been screaming before losing consciousness. It was a very severe injury and she would most certainly have registered the pain by noise, but she would have fallen unconscious within a minute or so."
He said it appeared she had been placed backwards across a knee and then had great force used on her to snap her back.
Consultant paediatric radiologist Dr Alan Spragg told the court Amy's leg and arm injuries were consistent with her being "yanked" suddenly by the limbs. He said a fracture to her elbow inflicted between four and eight weeks before her death would have been particularly painful and "nasty".
Amy's father James Howson, 25, of Nelson Road, Edlington, denies her murder.
The case continues.
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