The grandparents of two-year-old Ethan Ives-Griffiths have been jailed for his murder.
Ethan’s mother was also sentenced for her role in his tragic death.
Following a six-week trial at Mold Crown Court that concluded on 15 July, 2025, a jury of seven women and five men unanimously found Michael Ives and Kerry Ives guilty of murder.
Shannon Ives was convicted of allowing her son’s death.
All three were also found guilty of child cruelty.
At Mold Crown Court today, Friday, 3 October, they received the following sentences:
- Michael Ives, 48-years-old, of Kinglsey Road, Garden City, Deeside – life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years.
- Kerry Ives, 46-years-old, of Kinglsey Road, Garden City, Deeside – life imprisonment with a minimum term of 17 years.
- Shannon Ives, 28-years-old, of Mornant Avenue, Prestatyn – 12 years.
Detectives from the North Wales Police Force’s Major Investigation Team carried out a meticulous investigation into the events that led to Ethan’s murder in August 2021.
Officers spent months gathering vital evidence, speaking to numerous witnesses, medical experts and viewing hundreds of hours of CCTV footage from the Ives’ home.
They discovered that in the weeks before Ethan’s death, Michael, Kerry and Shannon Ives were cruel in targeting him as an object of physical and emotional abuse, neglecting him and starving him of food and water.
On 14 August 2021, less than two months after moving to live with his grandparents at Kingsley Road, Garden City, Deeside, Ethan suffered a catastrophic and non-survivable head injury at the hands of Michael and Kerry Ives, as Shannon Ives spoke to a friend on the phone upstairs.
Within minutes of the forceful blow, Ethan collapsed.
It wasn’t until 18 minutes later at 9.21pm that Kerry Ives called for an ambulance, having first made a FaceTime call to one of her daughters.
The previous day, on 13 August, another incident had taken place in the Ives’ home where Ethan had become unconscious in the living room, but regained consciousness shortly after. No medical attention was sought, which one medical expert described as “callous and a gross dereliction of responsibility”.
Instead, Michael and Kerry Ives took Ethan shopping to Tesco later that day.
CCTV from outside the home also showed the mistreatment and humiliation of Ethan by Michael Ives, and little care and concern by Kerry and Shannon Ives, who were seen to stand by with no intervention to protect him.
Despite his vulnerability, the cameras showed how Ethan was exposed to casual brutality, while other children were encouraged to mistreat him under the pretence of play.
Following Ethan’s admission to hospital, doctors noted how he was dangerously thin, chronically dehydrated, dirty, and had sustained a significant number of injuries.
Some included bruising to his face, abdominal injuries consistent with forceful blows, abrasions to the spine, a cut to his bottom lip, a torn frenulum, a chipped tooth and an older bleed on the brain.
The force used towards him was described to be like that seen in a in high velocity car crash or falling from a high storey building.
Despite desperate attempts by medical professionals to save Ethan, he never regained consciousness from his head injury and sadly died in Alder Hey Children’s Hospital at 6pm on 16 August 2021, aged two years and three months.
Michael and Kerry Ives denied they were responsible for their grandson’s devastating injuries, claiming Ethan had fallen to the floor whilst watching TV and wouldn’t wake up.
They both took a decision not to tell the police the truth to protect themselves and each other, blaming their daughter for the violence and mistreatment that led to Ethan’s death.
Speaking following the sentencing today, Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Superintendent Chris Bell said: “Today’s sentences reflect the wicked behaviour Ethan was subjected to before his brutal murder in August 2021.
“Ethan, a beautiful little boy with his whole life ahead of him, had it stolen by his grandparents, while his mother did nothing to stop it.
“They were the very people who should have protected him, cared for him and loved him. It is impossible to imagine the terror a two-year-old would feel in suffering the punishments and horrific injuries he endured.
“Not one of them have ever taken responsibility for their actions.
“My team has only ever been interested in justice for Ethan. He wasn’t here to tell us what happened to him, so it was vitally important that we gave him a voice and through a meticulous investigation, we have been able to piece together the facts about what happened to him.
“I commend the immense strength and courage of Ethan’s father, and his family, to assist my team over the past four years, and to conduct themselves with dignity throughout what was a lengthy, harrowing, and complex investigation.
“My thoughts and condolences remain with them and while no sentence can bring Ethan back, or heal the grief that continues to be felt, I hope it will bring a small sense of peace and enable them to begin to rebuild their lives.
“I would like to once again pay tribute to the professionalism displayed by colleagues, other emergency workers, medical experts and prosecutors for the exceptional work they have carried out, through what was an incredibly emotive, complex and protracted investigation.
“They were also driven by the determination of seeking justice for Ethan, often to the detriment of their own welfare.
“This investigation has brought out the best in policing and I want to thank my team who have worked tirelessly to secure this outcome for Ethan and his family.”
Investigating officer, Detective Constable Lee Harshey-Jones added: “The anguish and heartache felt by Ethan’s paternal family is difficult to come close to imagining but I hope they can now find some comfort in knowing those who murdered Ethan, and allowed his death to happen, will spend many years in jail.
“His life was taken from him by his own family, before it had even started.
“Ethan went from being what appeared to be a healthy, happy and vibrant little boy, to a weak, vulnerable and abused child. His injuries were so devastatingly serious that he never had any chance of surviving them.
“It is hard to comprehend their deplorable behaviour, and we are only able to imagine the treatment he endured behind closed doors in the final weeks of his life.
“Every hour spent working on this investigation was for one goal – to get justice for Ethan.
“This case is one that will stay with me and the team forever.”
