The foster mother of a boy left blind and brain-damaged by a couple in Northern Ireland told a court that her son will never say “I love you” to her again. Christopher Fulton, 35, and his estranged wife Amanda, 36, sat in Newry Courthouse as the boy’s foster mother read out a harrowing victim impact statement.
The “very young child”, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was savagely attacked by Mr Fulton in 2019 in Mosside, Co Antrim, the Mirror reports.
The tear-jerking witness statement was read from the witness box verbatim, in a legal first in Northern Ireland. The child’s foster mother, who also cannot be identified, said: “If the sky were made of parchment and I were to fill it with words of how much he means to us, it would still fall short to describe the love that we have for him”. She added: “Here lay a totally innocent victim whose only crime was being born.”
The heart wrenching statement continued, noting that the boy “will never see the faces of those who love him and care for him so deeply.”
“He will never see the sunrise. He will never know what the ocean looks like. He will never see the toys that Santa left for him under the tree,” the foster mother told the court, highlighting that even if he could see them, the child’s brain damage is so severe “he wouldn’t understand what they were.”
“He can only communicate his distress by crying, pulling his ears until they bleed, or banging his head with his fist and grinding his teeth. He lets me know he’s helping with smiles and giggles. He will never be able to ask me for sweeties or ask for just one more bed time story”, she added.
“I will never hear him say I love you,” she told Judge Peter Irvine KC, who heard that with medicines and food being given through a tube, his birthday cakes lie untouched and “he will never experience the satisfaction that comes from being hungry and getting to eat his favourite food.”
“As a result of his injuries, I will never have the privilege of teaching him how to ride his first bike. He will never be excited on Christmas Eve and wake me at 3am to see what Santa has left for him. He will never know what it is to get his first paycheck, his first car, his first home.
“He will never have the opportunity to get married and have children and grandchildren of his own. and instead, he has forever been condemned to a life of being totally dependent on his caregivers for every single aspect of daily life. He has been robbed of his independence.”
The trial of the Fulton’s took five weeks and started in October 2024. After seven hours and 45 minutes of deliberations over two days at the end of the trial, the jury found Mr Fulton unanimously guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent and two charges of child cruelty by wilfully neglecting the young victim.
Mrs Fulton was acquitted of GBH with intent and one charge of child cruelty, but she was unanimously convicted of causing or allowing the child to suffer significant physical harm and a further charge of child cruelty in relation to wilful neglect.
The pair failed to alert any medical professionals to the boy’s injuries for three hours after they were inflicted, the court heard.
The jury heard that it was at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children that the extent of the boy’s injuries became clear.
He had:
- A fractured skull with associated bleeding to the brain and retinal bleeding;
- 27 rib fractures;
- Fractures to both thigh bones;
- Fractures to both shin bones;
- Fractured wrist;
- A lacerated liver.
Remanding the pair back into custody, Judge Irvine said he would sentence them on April 4.