The heartbroken mum of a five-year-old boy kicked and punched to death by his stepdad has described feeling his final heartbeats.
Marvyn Iheanacho, 39, was found guilty of murdering little Alex Malcolm in a fit of rage today, following a two week trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Little Alex was fatally attacked as he screamed “sorry” for losing his trainer in Mountsfield Park in Catford, South London.
Heartbroken mum Lilya Breha desperately tried to save her boy on the night of the attack but Alex’s injuries were too severe.
Lilya revealed her final moments with her son in a statement to the court.
She said: “I remember it like it was yesterday.
The Shoe
“Lying next to him in a hospital and praying that everything would be fine, that he will open his eyes.
“I didn’t even get to tell him I love him.
“All I got was to put my hand on his chest and feel every single one of his final heartbeats.”
Iheanacho, 38, had taken Alex with him to pick up DVDs and visit a friend on November 20 last year.
On the way the pair stopped at Mountsfield Park in Hither Green where a witness overheard the child saying sorry for losing his shoe before he was attacked.
Jurors were shown footage of Iheanacho carrying Alex in a “fireman’s lift” away from the park and towards a taxi rank where he asked for a cab to Lilya’s home.
When he arrived at the address, Iheanacho attacked his partner to stop her calling an ambulance, and shouted: “Keep your f***ing mouth shut.”
Iheanacho suggested putting the schoolboy in a bath before wrapping him in a towel and assaulted Ms Breha when she would not stop screaming.
Ms Breha told the court: “Whatever he did to Alex, I feel he knew exactly what he was doing.”
Three months before the boy’s murder, Iheanacho admitting hitting him in a diary entry.
He wrote in the entry entitled “Mistakes” that he “had to beat him” for being sick in a taxi.
The pair started seeing each other in June last year when she was introduced to him by a friend while he was in prison.
When he was released Iheanacho would regularly stay over and Ms Breha said he would be “very nice” to Alex and “do some homework with him”.
She added she felt it would be a positive influence on Alex to have an adult male in his life.
