Man jailed for 7 years for crushing toddler Alfie Lamb to death - National

A man who admitted crushing his girlfriend's young son with a car seat has been jailed.
Alfie Lamb was just 3 when he died. Picture: Family Handout/PA WireAlfie Lamb was just 3 when he died. Picture: Family Handout/PA Wire
Alfie Lamb was just 3 when he died. Picture: Family Handout/PA Wire

Stephen Waterson, 26, has been locked up for seven years and six months after pleading guilty to manslaughter over the death of three-year-old Alfie Lamb, who was crushed to death with an electric car seat. 

The toddler was sitting in the footwell of Waterson's Audi convertible on February 15 last year when he was crushed. 

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Waterson, who was the boyfriend of Alfie’s mum, was sentenced at the Old Bailey in London today. 

Stephen Waterson. Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA WireStephen Waterson. Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
Stephen Waterson. Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire

Alfie's mother, Adrian Hoare, 24, from Gravesend in Kent, has already been found guilty of child cruelty and jailed for two years and nine months at the Old Bailey.

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Mother of Alfie Lamb, 3, who was crushed to death by car seat has been jailed

 Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC read out a victim impact statement from Alfie's aunt Ashleigh Jeffrey.

In it, she said Alfie had the ‘best smile’.

‘He was always smiling. His death has had such a profound effect on my life,’ she said.

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She was ‘pleased’ Waterson had pleaded guilty, saying it was ‘like a huge weight had been lifted and it made it all seem so real’.

Waterson could have avoided so much suffering if ‘he had just owned up’, she added.

Mr Atkinson said Alfie's mother had told of his importance to her and the ‘real lasting effects’ of losing him.

In mitigation, Tana Adkin QC told the court Waterson had ‘true feelings of love’ of Hoare and Alfie.

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She said: ‘Whilst thoughtless, I have no doubt, and selfish in his behaviour on February 1, he was not deliberately malevolent and nasty towards Alfie.’

Sentencing Waterson, Mr Justice Kerr said: ‘I do not find you were annoyed with Alfie and moved your seat back because of that annoyance.’

But he said he was satisfied he moved his car seat back twice ‘for your own comfort’.

He accepted character references from Waterson's parents, who attended court, and agreed he was ‘not all bad’.

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But he added he was ‘cunning, manipulative, threatening, and controlling’.

He handed Waterson a further two years for intimidation and 18 months for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice to run concurrently with each other.

Pregnant Emilie Williams, 20, who admitted lying to police about how Alfie died, wept as she was sentenced to five months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and 100 hours of unpaid work, to be completed after she gives birth.