GUILTY UK - Jordan Burling, 18, Died Weighing Less Than 6 Stone, Body Of Baby Also Found, Leeds, June 2016

[Tortoise]

I think you're probably right about the text.

It makes more sense in the context of her lying to the friend. I couldn't work out why she would say she was lying to the friend if it involved the friend taking him to the doctor.

 

[Tortoise]

So every time she had mentioned Jordan being ill to someone is now supposed to be a time that she was lying?
Everyone is now supposed to believe he was never ill at those points? Wow.

I think we've worked out that the one about the friend was badly reported. I'm getting a bit confused about her admissions that she wanted to get him a doctor but just not at the times of the texts..

 

[SugarQueen]

I know we are only reading the q&a but I’m hearing a lot she doesn’t want to answer. Her responses really sound more like she didn’t care, or didnt know she should care iykwim

 

[Tortoise]

The court listings are saying witness no.34 sworn in at 14:32

Dawn was witness no.33

 

[SugarQueen]

I think we've worked out that the one about the friend was badly reported. I'm getting a bit confused about her admissions that she wanted to get him a doctor but just not at the times of the texts..

I should have been more clear, Dawn now claims When she said Jordan wanted to go to the dr it was a lie. She claims she said it to get out of prearranged plans.
Dawn also said when she called out of work, telling her boss she had been up with a sick Jordan that was a lie. Claiming she just wanted a day off of work.

 

[Legally Bland]

It's still Dawn on the stand (I think, maybe the journo is still catching up).
_______________

Dawn rang 999 when Jordan's breathing changed
Mr Lumley asked Dawn whether she even thought about ‘overruling her son’s wishes’?

Dawn said:

“I were doing what he wanted, but at that point I started to shut down and get stressed.”

She was then asked about the 999 call she made on the day of Jordans death.
She said she rang 999 because was worried about his breathing as it was ‘different to before’.
She told the court that she moved into the kitchen after paramedics arrived because she ‘wanted to keep out of the way and let them get on with what they were doing’.

Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

 

[Legally Bland]

15:37
'His eyes were locked and they weren't moving'
Mr Lumley said: “You knew you had let your son die.”

Dawn said:

“I wasn’t prepared to think about that then.”

The barrister then asked why she had decided to phone 999 that morning after refusing to pick up the phone for months.
She said:

“His eyes were locked and they weren’t moving. It had never happened before.”

Later, she added: “I decided to ring 999 because he was unresponsive.”

Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

 

[Legally Bland]

So the reporter was just catching up.

 

[Tortoise]

we've both deleted. Go ahead LB I won't interfere

 

[Legally Bland]

Feel free to post updates.

16:06
Psychiatrist gives evidence about Dawn Cranston
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Cleo Van Velsen, who specialises in psychotherapy, has been called to the wintess box.

She has been sharing her professional opionions and observations after several interviews with Dawn and reviewing other reports and statements.
Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

 

[Legally Bland]

16:12
Depression, anxiety and depersonalisation
She told the court the following:

• Dawn says she has been dealing with depression ‘on and off since 2006’.
  
• She also claims to suffer panic attacks due to anxiety.
• She had taken a course of anti-depressants and beta blockers to treat anxiety.
• Dawn told her that she often sees her surroundings as ‘dreamlike or hazy’ and sometimes it’s like she is looking at the outside world ‘through a pain of glass’.
• Dawn’s symptoms are consistent with the disassociative disorders depersonalisation and derealisation.
• She also displays signs of hypo-emotionality (lacking emotion).

Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

 

[Legally Bland]

16:15
Dis-associative disorder explained
When explaining the disorders, she said that sometimes disassociation is a mechanism that is used by people who need to distance themselves from difficult situations, like doctors or firefighters. But it can also pathological and ‘more problematic’.
She was asked by Dawn’s defence barrister how these disorders would have affected her ability to make a risk assessment when Jordan was seriously ill.

Dr Van Velson said:

“She takes a picture of Jordan and we see that he looks so thin, emaciated, and she doesn’t see it a way because her need to feel and see that she’s a good mother taking care of her son overrides her capacity to acknowledge what she is seeing.”
Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

 

[Tortoise]

He's definitely behind with his reports, trial adjourned at 15:41 until tomorrow.

Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 10:15 - 15:41
Leeds Crown Court Listings, hearings, cases & details

 

[Legally Bland]

16:15
Diminished sense of agency
She later added: “In her mind she was looking after him and not seeing the reality of what was going on.”
She also the court that Dawn displayed signs of a dimished sense of agency.
When explaining that term, she said it is when you are an ‘onlooker onto yourself and not actually taking action to manage the situation in a healthy way’.
She cited Dawn’s decision to hide her dead child in a wardrobe as an example of this.
Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

I guess he means 'urgency'?

 

[Tortoise]

I know someone who once described living as if there was a pane of glass separating them from the world. It doesn't seem to describe how that would feel, but I guess it's like watching but not being with them on the other side of the glass?

 

[Tortoise]

16:15
Diminished sense of agency
She later added: “In her mind she was looking after him and not seeing the reality of what was going on.”
She also the court that Dawn displayed signs of a dimished sense of agency.
When explaining that term, she said it is when you are an ‘onlooker onto yourself and not actually taking action to manage the situation in a healthy way’.
She cited Dawn’s decision to hide her dead child in a wardrobe as an example of this.
Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

I guess he means 'urgency'?

It's unusual but I think it is agency. Like doing things but being cut off from what you're doing and why. I don't really know how decisions are made though. For instance why would she take a photo to show him if she doesn't think he looks thin?

 

[Legally Bland]

I don't know if there'll be more updates, but I have to pop out now if anyone wants to post them.

 

[Tortoise]

I think it's safe to say though that she is cut off from her feelings. That is what I'm getting. That's what I thought when she just separated from her husband because there was no room at her parents' house.

 

[Tortoise]

16:38
Dawn was withdrawn
Dr Van Velsen said Dawn and her family withdrew ‘into a cage’ at their house, in an attempt to protect themselves from the outside world and they often ‘reinforce rather than challenge each other’.

She also said Dawn hardly has any contact with people who are not related to her and she has been reluctant to form relationships, apart from Stephen.
Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house

 

[Tortoise]

16:45
Cross examination
Mr Lumley, prosecuting, did not challenge Dr Van Velsen’s findings but he did ask her a number of questions about Dawn’s abilities.

They established that Dawn was able to:

• Understand the charges brought against
• Instruct her lawyers, stand trial and give evidence
• Feed and cloth herself
• Travel to and from work independently
• Shop online
• Hold down a job

He also asked the psychiatrist about a phonecall Dawn claimed that she made shortly before Jordan’s death.

According to Dr Van Velsen, Dawn says she phoned the doctor’s surgery, but when no one answered she did not leave a message and did not try again.


16:45
Trial adjourned
The trial has been adjourned for today.
Live: Family on trial after dead teen and baby found in Leeds house