Dallas Marc Kelly: Man jailed for life for murdering his four-month-old son in Cumbria
A man has been jailed for life and must serve at least 18 years in prison for murdering his four-month-old baby son.
Reece Kelly, 31, from Workington, Cumbria, denied any involvement in Dallas Marc Kelly’s death after the baby died from a traumatic head injury in October 2021.
However, he changed his story at trial and pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his son.
He admitted shaking Dallas but claimed he had no intention to cause him serious harm or death.
The jury didn’t believe him and he was found guilty of the baby’s murder earlier this month after a two-week trial.
He was also convicted of child cruelty – as was Dallas’s mother, Georgia Wright, 23, who was jailed for three years.
She was found not guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Georgia Wright, Dallas’s mother, was found guilty of child cruelty and jailed for three years. Pic: Cumbria Police
The court heard that a pathologist found Dallas had bleeds over his brain and his eyes – often associated with deliberate head injuries.
He also had fingertip bruising on his chest, consistent with being squeezed, and six fractured ribs.
Five of those were said to have been caused around the time of his death and not likely to have been caused by CPR.
The other fracture was about six to 12 weeks old, according to the pathologist, who said there was no natural disease that could have caused his death, which resulted from a head injury.
Neither of the boy’s parents could explain his injured ribs and experts who examined Dallas said all of his injuries were consistent with forceful shaking.
Paramedics attended after Kelly called an ambulance at 12.25pm on 19 October 2021 to say Dallas was not breathing.
Dallas’s mother was at work at the time, having left Kelly to look after him.
Paramedics gave first aid at the scene and Dallas was taken to hospital, but he died at 8.40pm.
Prosecutors said Kelly and Wright led chaotic lives and were addicts who appeared to prioritise drugs over food.
Video evidence from a bedroom was shown in court showing Dallas crying for prolonged periods.
‘A life tragically cut short’
Victoria Agulló, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “Dallas’s life was tragically cut short by his father, who should have loved and cared for him.
“Throughout the police investigation and up until the first day of the trial Reece Kelly denied that he had caused any injuries to baby Dallas.
“Even after admitting manslaughter, he claimed that he had no intention to cause him serious harm, however the evidence the jury heard throughout the trial convinced them otherwise.
“Everyone who has been involved in this case has been deeply moved by the tragic circumstances of Dallas’s death.”
She added: “Both his parents let him down badly, their chaotic, drug-filled lifestyle and lack of basic care is staggering.
“This is a case that will stay with me. I can only hope that those that loved and cared for Dallas can feel some sense of justice with the outcome of this case.”
In a statement through Cumbria Police, Detective Superintendent Jenny Beattie, who led the investigation, said: “Dallas was a four-month-old boy who was entirely defenceless from the actions of his parents, Reece Kelly and Georgia Wright.
“Any child, particularly one as young as Dallas, should have parents who care deeply for them and act in their child’s best interest at all times. Sadly, this was not the case for Dallas.
“There is never any excuse or reason to cause harm or distress to a child and I am pleased that both Reece Kelly and Georgia Wright have been held accountable for their actions.”
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
Read more on grooming gangs:
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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