Maya Chappell: The girl killed by her mother's new boyfriend

Two-year-old Maya Chappell was murdered by her mother's boyfriend

Maya Chappell was just two and a half years old when she was murdered by her mother's boyfriend. The couple had only been together nine weeks and despite concerned relatives reporting a lot more bruises than normal on Maya before her death, she was left to her fate.

Michael Daymond always had an excuse for how Maya had hurt herself.

His girlfriend, Maya's mother Dana Carr, always seemed to accept the explanations, blinded, prosecutors said, by her desperation to be with the man she had known for just over two months.

• Mum's boyfriend guilty of murdering toddler

It was a short but intense relationship.

They met when Daymond delivered gas bottles to the pub where Carr temporarily worked, getting together in July 2022.

He visited her home in Catchgate, County Durham, and basically never left, later telling police: "I popped up to stay once and never really went home."

It was a "fairy tale" as far as Carr was concerned; a loving and caring man who treated her two-year-old daughter as if she were his own.

Dana Carr was found guilty of causing or allowing her daughter's death

He baked cakes with Maya and would sit and watch films with her, Carr said, adding they would "bants off each each other and wind me up together".

Maya would call him "DD" and if he left the room she would call out "where's DD gone", Carr said.

Daymond's relationship with Maya was "mint", he would later tell police, taking her to the shops and treating her to sweets, never telling her off or shouting at her.

He and Carr had conversations about "how weird it was [Maya and I] got on so well", Daymond said.

When Carr and Maya moved to Shotton Colliery in August 2022, Daymond effectively moved with them.

Michael Daymond was living with Maya and her mother at Milton Grove in Shotton Colliery (general view)

But while Carr and Daymond claimed to be playing happy families, alarm bells were ringing for other relatives, especially Maya's father James Chappell.

Carr had been with Mr Chappell since she was 17, giving birth to Maya when she was 21.

It was, by Carr's account, a "toxic" and "awful" relationship, littered with domestic abuse and violence, although Mr Chappell denied that.

Whatever the realities of that pairing, Carr left and the estranged couple shared custody of Maya.

After Daymond arrived on the scene, Mr Chappell started noticing a drastic change in his daughter and became increasingly concerned for her safety.

During her visits to her father, she would misbehave and stay up late. He also saw the bruises.

Maya was two and a half years old when she was killed

In expletive-laden messages he demanded to know what had happened to leave Maya's body so battered.

Carr would downplay their severity or offer explanations which he simply didn't buy, like a claim that bruises across both sides of her head were caused by a fall from a slide.

He was so concerned he contacted police to ask about Daymond's background, while Carr admitted to jurors she falsely claimed she was not seeing Daymond any longer.

She said she simply feared her ex's reaction at her having any new boyfriend, but Mr Chappell had specific concerns about Daymond who he had heard was being pursued for a drugs debt.

Carr vouched for her daughter's safety and was keen to back her new boyfriend.

Michael Daymond was found guilty of murdering Maya

The day before Maya's fatal injuries were inflicted, and amid a conversation about her previous bruises, Daymond messaged Carr saying: "Babe, I really hope you don't think I'm doing this to her."

She replied: "I would never ever think that."

Daymond messaged: "I'd never put a hand on her, I promise you."

Carr responded: "I know babe, please don't think I would ever think that."

She told jurors: "The warning bells can't be ringing if you get what you believe to be a reasonable explanation from someone who you believe cared about your child."

Had she had any fears she would have left, she said, "no matter how much I loved or cared for Michael".

Weeks of abuse

When she did ask further questions, Daymond blamed some of Maya's injuries on Carr's mother, which Carr also believed.

Prosecutors said her at best lack of curiosity, at worst willingness to cover up for Daymond, was criminal, and jurors agreed.

In his opening speech to the court, prosecutor Benjamin Nolan KC said Maya was subjected to weeks of abuse by Daymond, culminating with the events of 28 September.

Maya was a big Peppa Pig fan

Carr, a care coordinator arranging services for elderly people, had left their mid-terrace home on Milton Grove in the morning to go to work in Stockton.

Maya was reportedly unwell, suffering a bug that had gone through the household, and Daymond was her sole carer that day.

Daymond's stepfather Karl Gallagher visited at about 10:40 and noted Maya appeared upset, repeatedly asking for her "mammy" and refusing to have anything to do with Daymond.

He left half an hour later, the only other visitor was a food delivery driver dropping off chicken nuggets for lunch.

'Gasping for breath'

In the afternoon Daymond said Maya was sick and went to her bedroom.

He started playing a game on his X-Box, but after 10 minutes or so heard a loud bang from Maya's room.

He went to investigate and found her "gasping for breath" and lying "floppy" on the floor.

Daymond called 999 and, under the instruction of the call-handler, attempted CPR while police and paramedics rushed to the scene.

He had no idea how she had been injured, he said, but surmised she must have fallen from her bed.

Maya was flown to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary where doctors immediately noticed a large number of bruises on her body.

Maya Chappell died at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary at about 19:45 BST on 30 September 2022

She died two days later having never regained consciousness, her death caused by an "inflicted head injury".

Pathologists found a catalogue of injuries, but most noticeably the so-called triad that indicated she had been forcefully shaken and possibly hit her head on a hard surface.

Accidental cases where such damage is seen include high speed car crashes, a multi-storey fall or the head being crushed, they said.

The various experts were all of the view Maya's injuries had been caused by deliberate action which would have rendered her unconscious almost immediately.

'Blue in the face'

Pathologist Dr Louise Mulcahy also looked at the photos taken by multiple family members of Maya's bruises in the weeks before her death.

Daymond and Carr's claims, such as Maya nipping herself or her falling from a slide, simply wouldn't account for the scale and severity of those pictured injuries, Dr Mulcahy said.

Similarly, a large bruise covering Maya's pubic area photographed by another worried relative was highly suspicious.

"This part of the body is not usually injured accidentally and not to this extent," Dr Mulcahy told jurors.

Maya Chappell died in September 2022 two days after being fatally injured

Daymond declined to give any evidence at his murder trial, but in his police interview he denied harming Maya.

He said he would swear until he was "blue in the face" that he "never put a hand on that bairn".

Examination of his phone revealed he owed money for drugs, had set up an online dating profile while with Carr and was messaging a woman who said she was having his baby.

Carr told jurors she knew none of that and everything she had discovered since Maya's death had made her question if she even knew Daymond at all.

She now knows her fairy tale new boyfriend murdered her daughter and she failed to heed any warnings.