Kariss Moses

Unsolved Murders

Age: 3 months

Sex: male

Date: 3 Jun 1986

Place: Effra Road, Brixton

Kariss Moses died from injuries on 3 June 1986.

Her teenage father was tried for her manslaughter but acquitted.

It was heard that it could not be ruled out that he had caused the injuries whilst trying to resuscitate her.

The father had been unemployed and had lived in Effra Road, Brixton.

At the trial at the Old Bailey the defence submitted that the father had shaken Kariss Moses in an effort to resuscitate her after she stopped breathing during a feed.

It was heard that the shaking had caused her brain to swell and resulted in her death.

After a legal argument in the absence of the jury, the judge said:

I have concluded that there is not here a case for you to consider. This case concerns a father, 16 years old at the time, who was very young to be in charge of a three-month-old child.

It was noted that there was no evidence of maltreatment before 3 June 1986.

The judge continued:

In order for you to convict or consider conviction, there must be evidence before you upon which you can be sure that the defendant killed that child unlawfully. If it is reasonably possible that he might have killed that child as a distraught parent trying to save the child's life then it would be quite wrong for a person who is trying to do good to be convicted of manslaughter.

The court heard that the father had found Kariss Moses lying face down in her cot and that when he had picked her up that her head fell forward and that he started to shake her.

He was alleged to have said:

I would have done anything to wake her.

*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Huddersfield Daily Examiner - Wednesday 04 March 1987