JURORS in the Workington baby death trial have been shown messages exchanged between the child’s parents, with many featuring attempts to get illicit drugs.
Reece Martin Kelly, 31, has admitted the manslaughter of his four-month-son Dallas but he denies murdering him.
The baby’s mother Georgia Wright, 23, denies “causing or allowing” her son’s death while both defendants have pleaded not guilty to an allegation of cruelty, which prosecutors say involved them failing to take Dallas to medical appointments and exposing him to illicit drugs they were taking.
The prosecution case is that Kelly, formerly of Hunday Court, Workington, shook his son “violently”, causing a traumatic and ultimately fatal head injury.
Wright is accused of failing to protect her son from risk of injury that she knew about.
Prosecutor Tim Evans took the jury through scores of their messages, from both before Dallas’s collapse on October 15, 2021, to after his death four days later, when doctors turned off his life support machine.
In June of that year, Kelly sent Wright a message about how he was “rattling”, or suffering withdrawal symptoms. In August, Wright sent a message about needing to take more tablets when she got home from work.
She wrote: “If I get pulled today, I’m just going to say yeah, I take a few tablets while I’m working because of the pain in my back.”
By September, Wright was messaging Kelly about the need to source gabapentin tablets.
In a message to a male contact, sent on October 10, Wright wrote: “Bit stressed today as I was looking back on when Dallas was born before it reminded me of what Reece was doing at the time to me.
“I am trying to forgive him and move forward.”
Three days before Dallas went to hospital, Kelly messaged a relative, asking for money, saying: “Please, I feel like my head’s going to snap… £20 will do.
“I am so sorry. I’ve never struggled this bad; I can’t cope with this.”
The following day, the relative advised Kelly to go to the First Steps support agency to get help for his drug withdrawal symptoms.
He replied: “They’re useless.”
After Dallas was rushed to hospital, the defendants exchanged messages about how Kelly, instructed by control room ambulance staff, had given his son CPR when he stopped breathing while in his care at home.
Wright sent messages saying he had saved their son’s life. Kelly replied: “You don’t have to thank me darling. He’s my boy too.
“Never thank me for being a parent because I know you would do the exact same for [him]. You would have done the same for Dally doo because you are an amazing mum and I’m so lucky to have you in my life.
“You have changed it for the better and through hell or high water I will stand by you till the day I die.”
Wright replied that Dallas was “her world.”
She wrote: “I just want to see his beautiful little face and give him the biggest kiss. I am never going to let him out of my sight again. I am not going to go back to work for as long as I have him.
Kelly sent another message saying he could not understand why Dallas had a bleed on the brain. “What the hell is going on?” he asked, saying: “Why can’t they do anything?”
In another message he said: “Why the hell aren’t they doing a scan? They need to know what’s going on so that they can help him.
“This is torture not being with you. I miss you so much. I’m right here for you if you need me, Angel. I’m always gonna be there for you and the minute they say I can be there I will be right down.
“You are so strong darling; you are making me so proud that you are my partner and the absolutely incredible mam that you are.
"I’m the luckiest guy in the world having you.”
While Dallas was in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, undergoing a 90-minute brain scan two days after he went into hospital, Kelly sent a total of 19 messages linked to his efforts to source illicit drugs, the court heard.
At that point, the court heard, the defendants were aware of the police investigation, and Kelly wrote to Wright: “It’s killing me too darling. I hate this. I wish I just hadn’t put him down for a nap. I hate that the police are looking at us too.
“We are great parents and would never harm [Dallas]. I just want this over and want Dallas to come home and out of this healthy.”
The trial continues.
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