Child-killer found guilty of murdering his Doncaster partner's two-year-old son Keigan O'Brien

A child-killer has been found guilty of murdering the two-year-old son of his partner and the youngster’s mother has been found guilty of allowing the death of her toddler.
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A Sheffield Crown Court trial has heard how Sarah O’Brien, aged 33, of Bosworth Road, Doncaster, and her partner Martin Currie, aged 36, of no fixed abode, denied murdering Ms O’Brien’s two-year-old son Keigan O’Brien in January after he died from head injuries.

But Currie was found guilty of murder by a jury today, Tuesday, November 10, and guilty of cruelty to a child between July, 2019, and January, 2020, by willfull ill-treatment or neglect causing unnecessary suffering or death.

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Currie bowed his head as the verdict was returned and his face visibly reddened.

Pictured is toddler Keigan O'Brien, of Doncaster, who died of head injuries in January when he was just two-years-old.Pictured is toddler Keigan O'Brien, of Doncaster, who died of head injuries in January when he was just two-years-old.
Pictured is toddler Keigan O'Brien, of Doncaster, who died of head injuries in January when he was just two-years-old.

O’Brien was found not guilty of murder by the jury but was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child, and was found guilty of cruelty to a child between July, 2019, and January, 2020, by willfull ill-treatment or neglect causing unnecessary suffering or death.

Miss Justice Jennifer Eady QC told the court she wished to hear from the barristers in the case before she proceeds to sentence either tomorrow, Wednesday, November 11, or Thursday, November 12.

Jason Pitter QC, prosecuting, previously told the court Keigan had suffered a brain bleed, possibly from having his head hit against a wall or the floor, and over the previous weeks he had suffered a broken spine, broken ribs and a broken arm due to twisting.

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Professor David Mangham, who is a consultant pathologist, had confirmed to the court that Keigan had suffered fractures to his spine, ribs and wrist weeks before his death.

Pictured is Sheffield Crown Court.Pictured is Sheffield Crown Court.
Pictured is Sheffield Crown Court.

Miss O’Brien claimed she had returned home on January 8 after taking Keigan’s siblings to school when Martin Currie called her upstairs later that morning and she said saw the toddler on his bedroom floor and she called 999 and the youngster was pronounced dead on January 9.

O’Brien told the court how she was “devastated” when her partner called out and she had found her son lifeless in his bedroom.

Katherine Goddard QC, defending O’Brien, said Currie had been trying CPR before police and paramedics did the same on their arrival and before Keigan was taken to Doncaster Royal Infirmary and then Sheffield Children’s Hospital where he died the following day.

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Christopher Tehrani QC, defending Mr Currie, had claimed Currie had confronted O’Brien when he had found Keigan much earlier that morning and that Currie had been prepared to concoct a story to save her.

Mr Currie had told the court he would never hit a child and claimed he had never hit Keigan and that he had once been in love with O’Brien.

The jury went out on Thursday, November 5, to consider its verdicts after the four-week trial before returning its verdicts today, Tuesday, November 10.

Miss Justice Eady QC told the court she will sentence either tomorrow, November 11, or the day after, November 12, after hearing from the barristers.

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