British couple jailed in Spain for murdering baby daughter
A British couple have been convicted of murdering their two-month-old baby daughter in Spain after failing to take her to hospital after she fractured her skull in a fall.
Daryl Waller and Carla Devlin lived together in Torrevieja, pictured, on Spain's southeastern Mediterranean coast Photo: ALAMY
Daryl Waller, 23 and Carla Devlin, 21, face up to 19 years in prison after a jury found them guilty following a three-day trial in Elche near Alicante.
The court heard that they did not get medical help for their daughter, Lucia, after an apparent accidental fall for fear that doctors would detect signs of neglect.
The child died in March 2008 and her parents tried to pass it off to authorities in the Costa Blanca as a cot death.
But forensic tests showed that the infant had suffered two fractures of the skull a week before her death and was malnourished.
The couple, who lived together in Torrevieja on Spain's southeastern Mediterranean coast, were arrested at the border to Gibraltar as they attempted to flee Spain.
A state prosecutor told the jury they were "fully conscious of the fatal consequences of their actions" when they failed to take their daughter to a medical centre to treat her skull fracture. The court heard that the injury is thought to have been the result of an accidental fall.
Prosecution lawyers also claimed that Lucia's parents were worried that by taking their daughter to hospital, doctors would spot bruises on her body caused by previous beatings.
Waller and Devlin each blamed the other for their daughter's death during the trial.
Waller, who moved to Spain with his family when he was 13, admitted to suffering from a personality disorder, for which he had been treated at a clinic in the UK but stopped talking his medication when he moved abroad.
The court heard his condition was aggravated by addictions to drink and drugs. His lawyer argued that if jury members decided to convict him of killing his daughter, they should find him guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter.
Devlin, who also moved to Spain with her family as a teenager, took to the stand, and between sobs, insisted that she had never hurt her daughter. "I always loved her," she said.
The prosecutor has called for a jail sentence of 19 years each to be imposed.
