I have no doubt that 'Lessons will be learnt'

Shanay Walker: Mother and daughter jailed for 12 years for cruelty

A mother and daughter were locked up yesterday for a total of 12 years for abusing Shanay Walker.

Kay-Ann Morris, 23, fought back tears as she was given eight years for cruelty to the schoolgirl. She was cleared of the seven-year-old's murder on Thursday.

Her mother, Juanila Smikle, 54, was given four years after being convicted of four charges of cruelty, one on Shanay, after a trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

Today, we can reveal the shocking transcript of Morris shouting and screaming abuse at Shanay on the phone.

Trial judge Sir Alistair MacDuff told Morris: "You tried to break her like a wild horse – by punishing her severely every time you perceived her to be misbehaving."

He considered it one of the worst cases of child cruelty "it is possible to imagine".

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All little Shanay Walker wanted was her aunt Kay-Ann Morris's love, protection and support, a court heard as the 23-year-old was sentenced yesterday.


But Morris betrayed her, subjecting the seven-year-old schoolgirl to vile punishments.

Jurors at her trial heard of the appalling abuse Shanay suffered – from being thrown into a wall after she stole water to being dragged by the hair.

Morris – Shanay's legal guardian – even shoved clothes into the girl's mouth if she wore the wrong thing.

And she forced the vulnerable and troubled youngster to eat things she did not want as a punishment after she had stolen food.

Trial judge Sir Alistair MacDuff sentenced Morris, of Beckhampton Court, Bestwood park, to eight years for cruelty, in what was his last case.

He told Morris: "Let me say a word or two about Shanay. She was a lovely, feisty child.

"She was difficult and unruly. You tried to break her like a wild horse – punishing severely every time you perceived her to be misbehaving.

"But she refused to be broken; when you beat her, she stood up to you.

"And you could not bear that she refused to be cowed."

He said "how unfortunate" Shanay was to be taken from her loving foster mother, after a happy year of childhood, only to be "placed with you".

Morris was cleared by the jury on Thursday of murdering Shanay, who had been found with a fatal head injury, a fractured rib and more than 50 cuts and bruises.

Morris denied the killing and being cruel to Shanay, who was the child of her brother Vinroy Campbell.

The jury found Morris had been mean to her but did not cause her death.

"This whole series of events culminated on the night of the 30th to 31st July last year when Shanay died," said the judge.

"I will be loyal to the jury's verdict. Maybe you were not responsible for the fatal head injury. But whatever its cause, I am wholly satisfied that you beat Shanay over and over shortly before she died.

"I reach that conclusion because of the overwhelming evidence to that effect; evidence which comes from you.


"After Shanay's death, you wrote letters to your mother and you spoke with her on the phone. You told psychiatrists that you had hit Shanay, seeing not a little girl but the devil as you did so."

Shanay's grandmother Juanila Smikle, who lived in Easegill Court, Top Valley, was jailed for four years yesterday, after she was found guilty of cruelty to four children, including Shanay.The judge accepted Smikle, 54, had suffered appallingly as a youngster in her native Jamaica and her upbringing had not equipped her for good parenting.

"You had inflicted beatings and worse on your own children," he added.

Smikle had recalled she was beaten with a switch – a tree branch – or a rope but did not specify by whom, and she had been beaten and raped.

But all this had stopped, she claimed, when she arrived in the UK looking for financial support from the father of one of her sons. During her trial, she told the court: "When I came over here, I realised you can't beat your children.


The devastated mother of Shanay Walker said it "hurts and sickens" her to know of the pain Shanay would have been in.

Leanne Walker was in court every day to hear what happened to her daughter before she died.

She said after the case ended: "My beautiful daughter Shanay was entrusted to the care of family members who I believed would love and look after her.

"Instead, she was the victim of ongoing abuse and tragedy, and her life was cut short before she could become the lovely woman I know she would have grown up into.

"Juanila Smikle and Kay-Ann Morris have shown little remorse for their actions.

"It hurts and sickens me to know of the pain Shanay would have been in.

"We will miss Shanay's cuddles, her singing and dancing to Mary Poppins and our mother-and-daughter day trips to the nail salon. All we have are memories and photos.

A disturbing recording showed the wickedness inside Kay-Ann Morris.


Experts deciphered the convicted child abuser talking to Shanay from a recording on her mobile phone.

She had earlier been chatting sensibly with her niece and teacher at school.

Morris was informed Shanay had been sent to the head teacher after she threw cards on the floor during maths.

As they walked home after the meeting, Morris chastised Shanay, shouting and screaming abuse.

Morris said her niece looked ugly, like a pig, and asked why was that – because of her "stinking behaviour".

Jurors had transcripts to help them follow the distorted recording.

Morris had said to Shanay, "How can people dress you so smartly?" and "You have everything, everything, and that's how you go to behave like a dog".