Accused ‘seemed fine’ before Madison Horn’s death

A MAN accused of murdering a two-year-old girl “seemed fine” as he told her mother he had found the child was not ­breathing.

Kevin Park is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow. Picture: John Devlin

Kevin Park, 27, denies killing Madison Horn at her home in Kelty, Fife, on 20 April this year.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow also heard how Madison was said to have injured herself that day after a bed she was said to be jumping on “caved in”.

Her mother, Anne Marie White, was the first witness to give evidence at Park’s trial.

Miss White said she started dating Park in November last year before he moved into her house in Croftangry Road, Kelty.

The 22-year-old said Park and Madison got on “really well”. She said: “She was just always shouting for him when he was not in. He would play with her, normal things really.”

She recalled how on the day of the alleged murder, she was invited to a friend’s birthday­ ­celebrations in Cowdenbeath, Fife.

Asked by prosecutor Jennifer Bain whether she was “content” leaving Madison in Park’s care, Miss White replied: “That’s right.”

She said when she left her home that day, her daughter had been playing and Park had been vacuuming.

Later, when she was out for the evening, she received a Facebook message from Park asking her to call.

Ms Bain asked: “What did he say during the call?”

Miss White: “He said that Madison had been jumping on the bed and that it caved in. She banged her head. He said that there was a bruise coming up.

“I asked was she OK. He said ‘yes, she is fine sitting on the couch’ and that they were going to watch Toy Story.”

Miss White decided not at that point to return home but later noticed she had missed a call from Park. She eventually spoke to Park, after repeated failed attempts.

Prosecutor Ms Bain asked her: “How was he?”

Miss White: “Seemed fine – he just said that he had phoned an ambulance for Madison. He said that he had gone to the door to take a [takeaway] delivery and Madison was not breathing, so had to phone an ambulance.”

Ms Bain: “He seemed fine as he was telling you that?” Miss White replied: “Yes.”

Asked how the mother felt, she went on: “I just went into a panic – I started crying.”

Miss White then told how a passing ambulance driver took her to hospital to see her daughter. Madison was pronounced dead later that night.

“I was with her when she died. She just looked so lifeless. There was bruising on her cheek, head and ear. Some of her hair was missing,” she told the court.

Ms Bain asked: “Had she looked like that when you last saw her?” Miss White replied: “No.”

Miss White told the jury how she remembered her daughter being a “happy child”.

She said: “She loved playing outside, colouring in, playing with her toys. She was spoiled by everyone.”

Asked how Madison had been when she had left her with Park, she recalled: “Hyper, but she was fine… jumping on the bed, laughing. She had been trying to put my makeup on as I had left it on the bed.”

Park denies murdering Madison, after shouting at her, pulling her hair, and lifting her up, by repeatedly striking her head against a wall. He also denies biting the child on her body and repeatedly striking her again “by means to the prosecutor unknown”.

The trial, before Judge Michael O’Grady QC, continues.

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