Baby boy killed after being thrown from car window ‘because mum drank rosé on beach and didn't strap him in properly'
Mum Morgan Kiely, then 19, had been drinking at Clacton beach in Essex with a friend and her young son Harry on July 13, 2022.
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Harry Kiely died after being thrown from a car as his mum and a friend drove home from the beach after drinking
Credit: SWNS
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The young women were driving back from Clacton beach at about 6.30pm when the crash happened
Credit: Getty
However as they drove away, the car rolled and ended up on its roof - and six-month-old Harry was thrown from his seat through an open window.
He died later that night from 'unsurvivable' injuries including a skull fracture.
Kiely has denied manslaughter as prosecutors said Harry had not been strapped in his car seat properly.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard Kiely was the passenger in a
Ford
Focus belonging to friend Stevie Steel when the accident happened.
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Harry was in a rear seat behind his mother.
Steel, of Crayford, Kent, has previously admitted causing death by careless
driving
while over the drink drive limit.
Alex Stein, prosecuting, said the young women were driving back from Clacton beach at about 6.30pm when the crash happened.
They had met up at about 3pm and bought three bottles of Prosecco at Aldi on their way to the beach with Harry.
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They stayed on the beach for several hours and were briefly joined by a young man they knew.
After finishing a bottle of
wine
, they left the beach together before Steel and Kiely drove away.
The court heard Steel was distracted while driving and hit a parked car on Cherry Tree Avenue in Clacton.
The Ford Focus rolled and ended up on its roof, and the two girls were left hanging upside down by their seatbelts.
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Mr Stein said: "Very sadly, that child's seat had not been strapped properly into the seatbelt, and Harry hadn't been strapped into the seat properly.
"Harry was thrown out of
the open
window out of his seat.
"He suffered a devastating skull fracture. It is a very, very sad case."
Mr Stein said Harry landed on the road and had no way to break his fall.
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Members of the public rushed to help, including a retired paediatric nurse.
Harry was treated at the scene for more than an hour before he was taken to hospital, where staff continued to try to save him, but he died at about 9pm.
Read more on the Irish Sun
Mr Stein said there was nothing to suggest Kiely wasn't a loving and caring mother to Harry and that everything that could have been done to save him was done in the period after the crash.
The trial continues.
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They had met up at about 3pm and bought three bottles of Prosecco at Aldi on their way to the beach with Harry
Credit: Alamy
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