A man who shook his partner’s toddler to death after staying up late playing video games is to be sentenced for the 22-month-old’s murder.
Christopher Stockton, 38, was in sole charge of Charlie Roberts when the boy suffered a fatal head injury in the Darlington family home. His mother Paula admitted neglecting the tot before the murder.
Roberts, 41, was suspicious enough about Stockton that she set up a spy camera above her son’s cot, a trial at Teesside Crown Court heard in December.
But she stayed in a relationship with him, even after she voiced her concerns about Stockton to her brother.
Having initially denied a child cruelty charge, Roberts was to eventually admit neglecting her son by failing to get Charlie medical treatment for bruising caused by Stockton. Her boyfriend was convicted of murder and child cruelty.
Stockton, who had moved in with Roberts and her little boy just seven days earlier, was in sole charge of Charlie when he inflicted a severe head injury which caused widespread bleeding on the brain in January 2024.
Nicholas Lumley KC, prosecuting, told jurors that Stockton “shook or threw him with such violence, deliberately and forcefully harming little Charlie”.
Roberts had left the home minutes before to go for an eye test, and Stockton, who was off work ill and who had stayed up into the early hours playing Xbox games, must have snapped that January morning, the court was told.
Stockton rang 999 and could be heard on a recording repeatedly saying “come on mate” and “wakey wakey” to the little boy, who was not breathing.
Stockton was to tell paramedics, doctors and the police that Charlie had choked on a biscuit and that he patted the child on the back and stuck his fingers down the toddler’s throat. The toddler died in hospital the next day.
After Stockton’s conviction, Charlie’s dad Barry Greenwell said: “Charlie was a much-loved son and grandson who has been taken away needlessly and has left the whole family with a void that will never be filled.
“As a family we are processing the recent events and are trying to come to terms with the verdict and information given that has been deeply disturbing to ourselves.”
Detective Superintendent Chris Barker, who led the inquiry, said: “To install a spy camera as Paula Roberts did, means there must have been concerns about him.
“If you have concerns about those caring for your children, you must act, speak out or ask for help. Charlie had everything to live for, but his life was cruelly cut short.”
