Mother of baby murdered by woman trying to adopt him relives moment she learned he died

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery Laura Corkill has spoken publicly about her baby son’s murder for the first time as an independent review into the case is expected to be published “ ‘What happened’, they turned round and said apparently he’d had an accident and fell off the sofa and he was critical. open image in gallery Laura Castle, 38, was branded a ‘monster’ by Leiland-James Corkill’s biological mother The court heard Leighland-James was taken into care at birth before he was approved to live with his prospective adoptive parents in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, from August 2020. open image in gallery Leiland-James was placed with Laura Castle and her husband by authorities in Cumbria less than five months before his death from catastrophic head injuries Castle wrote the youngster was a “proper nob head”, “s*** bag” and “top t***”, while her husband said he was a “d*** baby”, “fat s***” and “toss bag”. open image in gallery A murder trial at Preston Crown Court heard how Laura Castle and her husband used derogatory language about Leighland-James in text messages and she talked about ‘leathering’ the baby Prosecutor Michael Brady QC said it was the Crown’s case she killed the boy as she lost her temper and suggested she smashed the back of his head against a piece of furniture.