July 2023

Parents found guilty of causing death of five-month old baby girl

A mother and father have been found guilty of causing the death of their five-month-old daughter.

Ava Mae Collard was found to have multiple rib, collarbone and femur fractures as well as severe trauma to the side of her head after she died on March 1, 2020, Staffordshire Police said.

Her parents, Joshua Collard and Rebecca Grocott, said they did not know how the injuries were sustained and later denied harming her.

But, after a five-week trial at Stafford Crown Court, Collard, 30, and Grocott, 27, were found guilty on Tuesday of causing their daughter’s death and several other offences.

The trial heard that paramedics were called to the family home in Stone on February 27 2020, and they then called police to report that Ava Mae was in cardiac arrest.

Paramedics treated the baby in an ambulance but she later died in hospital.

Following an investigation into her death and a post-mortem examination, her parents were arrested on March 25 2020.

Collard, of Stafford, and Grocott, of Stone, were found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child, causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child, and two counts of assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting or abandoning a child or young person to cause unnecessary suffering or injury.

The pair will be sentenced at the same court on July 27