Horrifying CCTV footage shows how the killer grandfather who murdered his two-year-old grandson callously lifted him across the ground by one arm like ‘a bag of rubbish’ in the days before his death.

Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, were today found guilty at Mold Crown Court of the murder of their Ethan Ives-Griffiths. 

‘Painfully thin’ and malnourished Ethan suffered a catastrophic head injury before he collapsed at home in Flintshire, North Wales, on August 14, 2021, while his mother was upstairs on the phone.

The toddler, who had been staying at his grandparents’ house in Garden City with his mother Shannon Ives, 28, died in hospital two days later. 

Footage shown to the jury from August 4 2021 shows how Michael Ives picked Ethan up by the top of his arm from a trampoline while he clutched his head in pain and dragged him across the garden before heading indoors.

Further video showed him holding him in the same chilling manner before strapping him into a car seat – and appearing to punch the little boy twice. 

Michael and Kerry Ives had denied the murder of Ethan, but a jury took just seven hours to deliberate before finding the pair guilty.

The couple had also pleaded not guilty to an alternative count of causing or allowing his death and cruelty to a child under the age of 16, and were convicted on the latter charge.

Ethan’s mother Shannon, of Rhes-y-Cae, near Holywell, was found guilty of causing or allowing his death and child cruelty. 

Ethan Ives-Griffiths (pictured) was extremely malnourished before his murder 

Kerry Ives, 46, has been found guilty of the murder of her grandson after a five week trial

Michael Ives, 47, has also been convicted of murder over the boy’s death, with distressing footage appearing to show him punch Ethan and spray a hose at him shown in court

CCTV footage from August 4 showed Michael Ives dragging Ethan across the back garden

Ethan was so ‘desperately dehydrated’ that medical experts said he would have died in within ten days even if he had not suffered a brain injury. 

A trial at Mold Crown Court, lasting more than five weeks, heard the boy was also only ten kilograms and thus severely underweight when he died, with 40 visible bruises or marks on his body.

Jurors were visibly upset at points during the five-and-a-half week trial, during which CCTV from the family home was played which showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm and appearing to punch him after putting him into a car seat.

The court heard Ethan had been placed on the child protection register, requiring him to be seen every 10 days, but when Shannon Ives last saw her social worker, on August 5, she spoke to him on the doorstep and told him Ethan was having a nap.

Nobody answered the door when social worker Michael Cornish went to visit in the days before Ethan’s death and a scheduled appointment with a health visitor on August 13 was cancelled.

Ethan was last seen publicly in CCTV footage with his family at Broughton Retail Park on the same day.

Shannon Ives had fled domestic violence from her home in Mold in June that year, the jury was told.

Her parents accused her of hitting her son, with Michael Ives telling the jury his daughter was ‘quick-tempered’ and would slap Ethan a couple of times a day.

But Shannon Ives told the court her parents were ‘horrible’ and abused her as a child.

The toddler had been staying at his grandparents’ house in Garden City with his mother Shannon Ives (pictured) 

Shannon Ives (pictured leaving court on Tuesday) was warned she faces a ‘substantial’ prison sentence but was bailed until sentencing on October 3

CCTV footage from August 4 showed Michael Ives (pictured) carrying his grandson by the top of his arm in a way which Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, described as ‘as though Ethan was just a bag of rubbish to be slung out’ 

Kerry Ives (pictured) waited 18 minutes after Ethan’s collapse to call an ambulance

Further CCTV footage showed Ethan being lifted into the back of a car by Michael before Ives appeared to punch him twice

The court heard that Ethan (pictured) would have died from dehydration within ten days if he had not succumbed to his injuries

Ethan Ives-Griffiths was last seen with his family at Broughton Retail Park on August 13, 2021, just days before he collapsed and died. He is seen in the child seat of a shopping trolley 

Ethan’s father, William Griffiths, is pictured outside court after attending to hear today’s verdict

The court heard Ethan was made to stand with his hands on his head as a punishment when he misbehaved.

CCTV footage from August 4 showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm in a way which Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, described as ‘as though Ethan was just a bag of rubbish to be slung out’.

The video, taken from the back garden of the family’s four-bedroom home, showed Ethan appearing unsteady on the trampoline, or lying down, while other children bounced and appeared to show Michael Ives point the garden hose at him, place the toddler’s hands on his head and gesture to another child to punch Ethan.

Ives was then seen appearing to drag his grandson across the garden.

Medical experts told jurors that the video suggested Ethan already had some degree of brain injury when it was filmed. 

After watching the video in court, Michael Ives said he felt ‘ashamed’ and admitted being cruel and neglectful of the toddler, but denied mistreating him in other ways.

The cameras did not show Ethan leave the house after August 4 until August 12, when Michael Ives was seen again carrying him by the upper arm, putting him into a car seat and appearing to punch towards the youngster.

When Ethan was examined by doctors after his death, he was found to have abdominal injuries likely to have been caused by blows in the days before his collapse.

Other injuries included bruises which were consistent with grip marks on his leg and face.

Experts said Ethan would have died of dehydration within days had he not suffered the head injury and at the time of his death weighed just 10kg, the court was told.

Asked if he noticed Ethan was ‘dangerously thin’, Ives said he mentioned it to Shannon a couple of weeks before the boy’s death.

He told the court: ‘She was going to try and get him a doctor’s appointment.’

The jury heard medical evidence that Ethan’s fatal head injury was caused by deliberate force or shaking and occurred at the time, or in the minutes before, he collapsed on the evening of Saturday, August 14 2021.

Medical evidence pointed to the fact that something ‘horrific’ happened just before the collapse, the trial was told. 

Michael and Kerry Ives, originally from Wolverhampton, were in the living room with Ethan at the time of his collapse while his mother was on the phone upstairs.

Both told the jury ‘nothing’ had happened to the toddler before he fainted as they watched television.

Kerry Ives said she immediately called Shannon Ives to come downstairs, but the court heard it was 18 minutes before she called emergency services.

Ethan was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital and later transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where he died two days later.

The jury deliberated for six hours and 54 minutes before returning their verdicts on Tuesday morning.

Speaking outside court after the verdicts were returned, Ethan’s father Will Griffiths said: ‘He will be remembered for the smiley, outgoing, loving child that he was. He can now rest in peace, knowing that justice has been served.’ 

Mr Justice Griffiths told them that because of the ‘unusually distressing’ subject matter in the trial, they could be exempted from jury service for the rest of their lives if they wished.

He said Michael Ives and Kerry Ives would be given life sentences and Shannon Ives faced a ‘substantial prison sentence’.

Shannon was bailed until sentencing, which will take place for all three defendants on October 3.

Detective Superintendent Chris Bell said Ethan was singled out and ‘casually and brutally assaulted’.

He said: ‘It is beyond comprehension how anybody could treat a human being like that, let alone a defenceless two-year-old who you should be caring for.’

A Flintshire County Council spokeswoman said the council would be co-operating with an independent child practice review by the North Wales Safeguarding Board, who are leading a multi-agency review of the case.