A drug-addicted man has been jailed for life after killing his 2-year-old step-daughter in a “frenzied and extremely violent attack” and filming her as she lay dying.
31-year-old Kyle Bevan was handed a life sentence for murdering Lola James in the early hours of July 17, 2020, with a minimum term of 28 years. During the sentencing at Swansea Crown Court, Mr Justice Griffiths said Bevan had beaten Lola into a coma. “He started to hurt Lola at midnight and he carried on until she was unconscious at 6.30am,” the judge said. “This was a sustained, deliberate and very violent attack. The attack was completely unprovoked.”
Griffiths added that the self-confessed “spice-head” had used weapons to kill Lola and had shaken her violently. She would have experienced “mental and physical suffering” before falling into the coma, he added.
According to the judge, after the murder Bevan tried to cover his tracks by scrubbing the two-year-old’s body so meticulously that he removed her transfer tattoos and falsely claiming she had fallen down the stairs. It was at this time that Bevan also sent a video to his mother of picking up Lola’s limp body, speaking directly to the camera and saying: “She’s gone. She’s gone.”
Lola’s mother, Sinead James, 30, was jailed for six years for causing or allowing Lola’s death. The court heard Lola had 101 scratches and bruises to her body and head, extensive damage to both her eyes and severe injuries to her brain.
A spokesperson for the local authority said: “Whilst Pembrokeshire county council has had some historical involvement with Lola and her family, the local authority was not involved with the family at the time of her death or indeed at any time during the relationship between Kyle Bevan and Sinead James.”
A child practice review will be launched to investigate whether agencies could have done more to help Lola, who was attacked at the family home in Haverfordwest, south-west Wales.
