Murdered Kemarni Darby's father tells court he was 'deceived'

‘All I feel is anger towards them’: Father of little Kemarni, three, who was murdered by his mother’s drug dealing boyfriend tells court how he was ‘deceived’ by ‘lying’ couple as he pays tribute to ‘cheeky young boy’

• Darren Darby alleges Nathanial Pope and Alicia Watson both lied at their trial 
• Pair had been convicted for murder of toddler Kemarni Watson Darby in April
• Tragic Kemarni suffered devastating injuries comparable to a ‘car crash’ victim
• He was locked in a room with electrical wire in a tiny and filthy Birmingham home

The father of a three-year-old boy who was murdered by his mother and her partner today revealed how he was ‘deceived’ by the ‘lying couple’ and paid tribute to his son.

Darren Darby said convicted drug dealer Nathanial Pope, 32, and Alicia Watson had both lied at their trial, which heard that Kemarni Watson Darby suffered more than 20 rib fractures before his death from abdominal injuries.

The toddler was kept in a room locked with an electrical wire in the cramped property in West Bromwich, Birmingham, as he suffered ‘a catalogue of horrendous injuries’ – likened to those of a car crash victim – in the weeks before he was killed.  

Pope, 32, was found guilty of murder in April, following a five-month trial which heard that Kemarni had 34 separate areas of external injuries.

Kemarni’s mother, 31-year-old Watson, was cleared of murder but found guilty of causing or allowing his death.

Jurors heard that Watson and Pope, who blamed each other from the witness box, continued to live together for several months after Kemarni died from abdominal injuries in June 2018 when his ribs were ‘crushed’ at their two-bedroom flat in Beaconview Road, West Bromwich.

Kemarni Watson Darby, pictured, suffered fatal abdominal injuries in an assault at the two-bedroom flat where he lived with Pope and his mother Alicia Watson in West Bromwich, West Midlands

Nathaniel Pope, 32, (right) and Alicia Watson, 30, (left) have been convicted of causing the death of three-year-old Kemarni Watson Darby who suffered weeks of ‘horrendous’ abuse before he died

In a statement read to a sentencing hearing by a barrister at the same court on Monday, Mr Darby said: ‘My son Kemarni was an active, fun, boisterous, cheeky young boy. He was always smiling and laughing.

‘His life has been cruelly cut short. He had the potential to be so much.

‘I will not get to be involved in the key moments of his life.

‘Kemarni was loved by so many people, both friends and family. Everyone has been impacted by his death.’

Alicia Watson cut a defiant and angry figure during much of her six days of evidence – accusing barristers of lying and dismissing the case against her as ‘disgustingly wrong’.

On the fifth day of her testimony, the 30-year-old suffered a nosebleed and told the jury she was mentally and physically exhausted – and was ‘done’ with giving evidence.

The trial judge at Birmingham Crown Court then allowed Watson to complete her testimony by videolink at HMP Foston Hall in Derbyshire – with the end of her cross-examination limited to just one hour. 

Watson had always insisted at trial that her son Kemarni must have been attacked by her former lover, Nathaniel Pope, while she was away from their flat, but also claimed she had no idea how he had suffered broken ribs. 

During questioning by Pope’s QC Jonas Hankin she spoke of being ‘p****d off’ with some of the questions ranged at her. 

During his time-limited questioning of Watson, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC asked her to account for 34 non-medical related external injury sites found on Kemarni’s body, including some containing multiple bruises.

Asked how many of the injuries she had been aware of, Watson replied: ‘None. He had old scarring from accidents but nothing new as far as I knew.

‘I didn’t cause them, I didn’t see them. I loved and cared for my child for three years.’

Claiming to have been horrified at ‘learning’ of Kemarni’s internal injuries, including damage to his abdomen, Watson repeatedly denied lying.

Mr Badenoch put it to Watson that she had not been living with a ‘secretive child abuser’ but acted with Pope to abuse Kemarni ‘for days, months and hours on end’.

Watson said the Crown’s case was ‘disgustingly wrong’, but jurors unanimously convicted her of child cruelty and causing or allowing her little boy’s death, after a 65-day trial. 

Mr Darby, who is currently studying at university and made his statement two weeks after the trial ended, went on: ‘We had to wait over three years before we could lay Kemarni to rest because of the criminal inquiry.

‘When I first heard the news that Kemarni had died I cannot put into words how I felt.

‘As time went on I would be told about the injuries Kemarni had. It didn’t come all at once, it was piece by piece, revelation by revelation.

‘Both Alicia and Nathaniel told lies so you can’t be sure what’s truth and what’s fiction. All I feel is anger towards them – I feel deceived by them.

‘It’s about coping now – trying to get through each day. When you are in this situation it doesn’t seem real.

‘It’s a true life sentence for me and my family. There is no coming back from this – Kemarni is not coming back.’

A four-month trial followed where the jury was told Watson and Pope, who blamed each other from the witness box, were ‘partners in crime’ and continued to live together for several months after Kemarni’s death.

Jurors found the youngster died from abdominal injuries on the afternoon of June 5, 2018, after his ribcage was ‘crushed’ at the couple’s two-bedroom flat in West Bromwich, inflicted by Pope.

But also among the fatal injuries to Kemarni’s body were four rib fractures believed by pathologists to have been caused up to four weeks before he was killed at his home in West Bromwich.

Pope, who was jailed for four months in 2011 for a brutal attack on a young mother on a London bus, claimed in court that he had not seen or heard the fatal attack on Kemarni.

Jurors were told Pope was convicted of common assault and was jailed for the bus attack, but were not given further details of the attack following legal argument. 

The former warehouse worker has previous convictions for burglary and possession of heroin with intent to supply, and was found with a ‘rock’ of crack cocaine hidden in his buttocks when he was arrested for murder in March 2021.

Watson, said to have a ‘zero to 100’ temper, became angry while giving evidence, blaming Pope and claiming she only lived with him after her son’s death because she doubted the medical evidence.

Expert witnesses said the youngster was already in pain from serious injuries when, hours before he was beaten to death, he was taken by Watson to a walk-in health centre, where she told a nurse her son was being sick, had a high temperature and was not eating. 

Notes from the visit suggested that Kemarni, who was given medicine for a suspected stomach bug, had been vomiting for five days and was ‘not his usual self’. 

Opening the case at the start of the trial, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said: ‘Post-mortem examinations revealed that Kemarni had sustained horrendous injuries both that day and on earlier occasions.

‘The injuries were evident both externally and internally when a post-mortem examination was conducted.

‘Amongst those injuries were multiple fractures to his skeleton, some of which would have required force akin to a road traffic accident or stamping.

‘Both recent and non-recent injuries were found. There were multiple fractures to both the left and right side of his ribcage which could be dated historically into the hours and weeks preceding his death.

‘At least four separate events caused the fractures. They included corner fractures, fracture lines, partial fractures and a complete transverse fracture.’

One of the bedrooms in the two-bedroom flat where Kemarni Watson Darby was murdered in West Bromich back in 2018. Watson and Post, who were both also found guilty of multiple child cruelty counts, lived together in rooms strewn with rubbish and clothing

In the living room, pictured, where Kemarni was shown eating toast next to a clump of his hair, there was tops of baby bottles, pharmacy containers and plastic bags splayed out on the ground 

Pictured: Expert witnesses said the youngster was already in pain from serious injuries when, hours before he was beaten to death, he was taken by Watson to a walk-in health centre

Both defence barristers offered mitigation to the court after Mr Darby’s statement was read today by prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC.

Jonas Hankin QC, representing Pope, submitted that the former warehouse worker’s ‘truly dreadful’ actions, with many aggravating features, should not be viewed in the same category as the ‘purposeful, systematic and perpetual abuse’ seen in some other child murder cases in recent years.

He said: ‘The fatal violence, grievous and brutal that it must have been, was not obviously dangerous to life.’

Watson’s QC, Charles Sherrard, said: ‘No matter what the court does, she has lost everything.

‘Of course the jury’s verdicts demonstrated that she is culpable in that loss.

‘She will come out (of prison) to a family that is understandably split between some that remain supportive and those that will always understandably remain extremely critical.

‘The effect on her mental health is significant. She is perhaps in a very dark place and may never come out of it.’

Pope, of Wolverhampton, and Watson, of Handsworth, Birmingham, will be sentenced by Mrs Justice Tipples on Tuesday.

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