Life jail for couple who murdered boy, three

Kayley Boleyn, 19, and 25-year-old Christopher Taylor inflicted more than 70 injuries on three-year-old Ryan Lovell-Hancox.

The boy lived with the couple at their flat in Bilston, West Midlands, for a month before he was rushed to hospital in a coma having suffered a massive brain haemorrhage.

They had been paid 40-a-week by the boy's mother and Boleyn's cousin, 21-year-old Amy Hancox, who felt she could no longer look after the child because of her own mental problems.

But Boleyn "abused the trust" of Ryan's parents, who had no idea of their son's suffering.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Taylor and Boleyn made Ryan's life hell in the weeks before his death on Christmas Eve 2008.

They forced the youngster to live in "squalor", providing better care for two dogs they had brought in to the home.

The court heard the violence shown towards Ryan was not borne from a "flash of temper" but was sustained and horrific.

Two days before Ryan's death, Miss Hancox tried to batter down the door to Boleyn's home to see her son for what would have been the last time while he was alive.

But Boleyn, who like her boyfriend was addicted to cannabis and alcohol, refused to let the mother in as Ryan's face and body was covered in bruising.

Yesterday, Mrs Justice Macur ordered Boleyn to serve at least 13 years in prison while Taylor was told his minimum term would be 15 years.

Boleyn, who along with Taylor was found guilty in March of murder and child cruelty, was known to social services.

In the dock, Taylor and Boleyn stared straight ahead, not even

flinching when Mrs Justice Macur passed her sentences of life

imprisonment.