Finley Boden: parents convicted of ‘brutal’ murder of 10-month-old son on Christmas Day

A cannabis-smoking mother and father have been convicted of the “savage and brutal” murder of their baby son on Christmas Day.

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Stephen Boden, 30, and Shannon Marsden, 22, burned and beat 10-month-old Finley Boden “in repeated acts of severe violence” in the days before his death. Mary Prior KC, prosecuting, said the tot suffered a catalogue of “appalling” injuries, including 71 bruises over his body and 57 fractures, many inflicted in the short period before his fatal collapse.

Boden and Marsden were convicted after a five-week trial at Derby Crown Court on Friday, for the death of Finley in the winter 2020 Covid lockdown – just 39 days after he was placed back into their care. Only hours after his son’s death, Boden was heard telling Marsden at hospital that he was going to sell Finley’s pushchair on eBay – later telling police he only said this in an effort to lighten the mood.

Finley’s pelvis had been broken in two places, possibly from sustained “kicking or stamping”, and he had two burns on his left hand – one “from a hot, flat surface”, the other probably “from a cigarette lighter flame”.

He fatally collapsed after suffering a cardiac arrest at the family’s “cluttered” and filthy terraced home in Holland Road, Old Whittington, Chesterfield, Derbyshire – with faeces later found in the bedroom.

Paramedics were called there at 2.33am on Christmas Day and Finley was taken to hospital, but despite medics’ best efforts he was pronounced dead at 3.45am. Later Marsden, while visiting Finley’s body in a hospital chapel of rest on 11 January 2021, would say: “His dad’s battered him to death. I didn’t protect him.”

Boden had claimed the family dog may have “jumped on” his son, inflicting broken ribs, while a tear to the inside of Finley’s mouth likely caused by a dummy being rammed in was blamed on the child hitting himself with a rattle.

However Ms Prior told the jury that the pair were “in it together”, repeatedly lying to hide their abuse from the police, social services and their own families. Boden sent a text message two days before the child’s death saying: “I want to bounce him (Finley) off the walls.”

Marsden met Boden when she was 17 and he was 24. The pair enjoyed smoking cannabis together, which contributed to Finley being made the subject of a child protection plan by social services a month before he was born. Jurors heard Finley was returned to the couple’s care over eight weeks by a court order, despite social workers asking for a longer transition.

A report by the family’s social worker had recommended a six-month transition – three times longer than the eight-week period which was ordered at a court hearing concerning the child’s care, in October 2020.

Boden, of Romford Way, Chesterfield, and Marsden, of no fixed address, had denied murder, two counts of child cruelty, and two charges of causing or allowing the death of a child. The pair, who did not react as the verdicts were read, will be sentenced at a later date.