Car river plunge father denies murdering five-year-old daughter

A FATHER accused of murdering his five-year-old daughter and attempting to kill his six-year-old son told their mother “you’ve got 10 seconds to say goodbye to your kids and then they are dead” before driving his car into a river, a court was told yesterday.

Gabrielle Grady died in hospital three days after she was rescued from the submerged vehicle in the River Avon in Evesham, Worcestershire, last February. Her brother Ryan survived after being pulled from the water by police.

Prosecutor Graham Reeds QC told Birmingham Crown Court that their father Christopher Grady, 42, warned their mother Kim Smith, from whom he was separated: “This is the last time you are going to see them, they’re going to die”. Grady, of no fixed address, denies both charges.

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The court heard that Miss Smith telephoned Grady after she became concerned the children had not arrived at school following an overnight stay with their father.

“He said to her, ‘be outside your house, you’ve got 10 seconds to say goodbye to your kids, and then they are dead’,” said Mr Reeds.

“A minute later he arrived in his car outside her house ... he was angry and shouting.”

The prosecutor added: “He said Kim had 10 seconds to say goodbye. She remembers him shouting ‘river’ and then accelerating away as she made an unsuccessful grab to try and open the door to get the children out of the car.”

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Witnesses heard the children “screaming and wailing” in the car as Grady drove towards a field next to the river. Mr Reeds said one described how Grady “floored” the accelerator pedal “and made straight for the river at high speed”.

The prosecutor said: “The car hit the water nose-first... it floated first and then it started to sink.

“Passers-by were on the bank but there was nothing they could do even if they wanted to.

“As the car sank, eye-witnesses remember seeing one of the children banging on the back window trying to get out of the car.”

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The court heard that Grady told doctors that he had driven into the river because he had “had enough” of Miss Smith “trying to take my kids away”.

Mr Reeds said a number of handwritten notes were found in the car after it was pulled from the water, including one addressed to Miss Smith which read: “You led me to this, my kids with me now,” and another asking a friend to put three “trees of light” at his funeral.

The prosecutor said: “The prosecution say the cause was a deliberate and settled decision by the defendant to kill himself and his children by driving into the river. He says he didn’t intend to harm either of them.”

The trial continues.