Kemarni Watson Darby: Man guilty of murdering partner's son, 3

A man has been found guilty of murdering his partner's three-year-old son after inflicting more than 20 rib fractures over weeks of beatings.

Nathaniel Pope left Kemarni Watson Darby with injuries comparable to a car crash or fall from height.

Kemarni's mother Alicia Watson was convicted of causing or allowing her son's death at her West Bromwich flat.

Watson and Pope were also found guilty of child cruelty charges at Birmingham Crown Court.

Several jurors were in tears as the verdicts were read out after the 20-week trial.

Judge Mrs Justice Tipples also became emotional as she ordered the panel to be discharged from future jury service for life due to the "awful nature of the facts" they had had to consider.

Kemarni, who was known as a noisy, energetic and cheerful three-year-old, had been the victim of what was described in court as a "brutal assault".

Jurors heard it was one of several attacks the boy had suffered while living with Watson, 30, and her partner Pope, 32, at the flat in West Bromwich.

Kemarni Watson Darby suffered fatal abdominal injuries

Kemarni's body had 34 separate areas of external injuries which acted as a "silent witness" to the crimes, the court was told.

The pair had tried to pass this off as accidental and Watson told the police he was a "boisterous boy" who was "always running into things".

Jurors were shown a photograph of Kemarni with an injury to his right eye as well as one showing him eating near a clump of his own hair, which Watson claimed he had cut off.

Prosecutors said they deliberately beat the boy's abdomen rather than more obviously visible areas of his body.

Prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said: "It's Kemarni's body that spoke the loudest, with the most clarity, in this courtroom. His squeezed, battered and lifeless, oxygen-starved body cannot lie."

The three-year-old died on the afternoon of 5 June 2018 after his ribcage was "crushed" at the two-bedroom flat.

Alicia Watson and Nathaniel Pope blamed each other from the witness box

Kemarni had expressed a wish not to go back to his mother's flat after contact visits with his dad, the court heard.

A safeguarding review by Sandwell Children's Safeguarding Partnership will reveal whether opportunities were missed to save him.

No safeguarding concerns about Kemarni had been identified before his death and he had had no involvement with children's social care, the partnership said.

Their chair, Lesley Hagger, said the case was "deeply upsetting" and they would look to publish their report "as soon as possible".

"It is vital that sad cases like these are thoroughly looked at and, where there are areas for improvement, that any necessary changes are made," she added.

Analysis, Phil Mackie, BBC Midlands correspondent

Although in its statement the Sandwell Safeguarding Partnership said there had been no prior contact with children's services, the review it's carrying out will want to ask why? This was a vulnerable three-year-old who was living with his mother - a regular cannabis user - and her partner - a convicted drug dealer.

We learned during the trial that the nursery which Kemarni had attended had raised some concerns about his well-being, but it's not clear to whom those concerns were raised and what action, if any, was taken.

Kemarni's tragic and short life seems to have been lived under the radar, and perhaps if any lessons are learned from the safeguarding review it will be to see whether more can be done to pick up on cases like his.

Alicia Watson said Kemarni's injuries had been caused by accidents or fights with other children

Both adults routinely abused drugs, the prosecution told the court, and neighbours said there had been a "constant smell of weed from the flat".

Pope, a former warehouse worker, had been jailed for four months for smashing a mother's head repeatedly into a rail on a bus in London in 2011 in front of her children and then dragging her off by her hair.

But the details were kept from the jury after legal arguments.

He had also previously been convicted of burglary and possession of heroin with intent to supply.

Pope told jurors he had "just told some of the truth" about himself in evidence but insisted he had never hurt Kemarni in any way.

Watson was said in court to have a "zero to a 100" temper and it emerged she spent money on cannabis and driving lessons at a time when her son lost his nursery place due to a lack of funds.

During her six days of evidence she accused barristers of lying and dismissed the case against her as "disgustingly wrong".

Kemarni lived in a small flat with drug users Alicia Watson and Nathaniel Pope

Watson insisted Pope must have attacked Kemarni while she was away and claimed to be horrified at "learning" of his internal injuries.

But Mr Badenoch told her she had acted with him in the abuse "for days, months and hours on end".

The pair, who blamed each other from the witness box, were also convicted of one count of child cruelty, relating to rib fractures and an abdominal injury before Kemarni's death.

They were also separately found guilty of two further counts of child cruelty in relation to other children. Watson was cleared of murdering her son.

Det Insp James Mahon described the investigation as a "horrific case for everyone involved".

"It's absolutely awful that the two people who were supposed to look after him the most were those that caused injury, and in the end his death," he added.

Their sentencing will take place at a later date.