Toddler who was drugged and beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend is finally laid to rest over two years later as grieving father wins legal fight to bury her after he was left off of her birth certificate
- Eve Leatherland was 22 months old when she died in Liskeard, Cornwall, in 2017
- Her father only able to bury her earlier this month after prolonged legal battle
- She was buried in a pink coffin that arrived in carriage pulled by white horses
A toddler who was drugged and beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend has finally been buried after her grieving father won a two-year legal battle.
Eve Leatherland was just 22 months old when she was killed at her home in Liskeard, Cornwall, in 2017.
But her father, Dean Bird, was only able to lay her to rest earlier this month following a prolonged legal battle to obtain the necessary permissions after he was left off the birth certificate.
Eve Leatherland was just 22 months old when she was killed at her home in Liskeard, Cornwall, in 2017. She was finally laid to rest earlier this month
Dean took to Facebook on the day of the ceremony, February 8, to pay tribute to his daughter.
His post read: ‘Too good for this world. We all know they needed a princess in heaven and heaven got the best there is.
‘You, my princess, will always be my princess but remember one thing… if one day you find your prince just remember I’m daddy and you’re my princess.
‘I love you more than you’ll ever know and today we lay you to sleep in your forever bed I love you night night my angel xxxxx.
‘You kept the sun shining all day.’
He also shared photographs from the ceremony of Eve’s pink coffin that had arrived in a carriage pulled by four white horses.
Her father, Dean Bird, (pictured with Eve) had to endure a lengthy legal battle to obtain the necessary permissions after he had been left off the birth certificate
The little girl’s mother, Abigail Leatherland, originally met her boyfriend, Tom Curd, on social media.
Curd quickly moved in with Leatherland at the home she shared with her two young children.
The jury was told during a two-week trial at Truro Crown Court that Curd had repeatedly beaten Eve while he was in a relationship with her mother.
He left the toddler with multiple rib fractures and two fractures to her skull in the days prior to her death.
She was later killed after being given a fatal dose of the drug Codeine which prosecutors said Curd had administered in an attempt to hide the injuries he had inflicted.
Curd, 31, of Watford, was given a life sentence for a minimum of 20 years in prison for Eve’s murder. Leatherland, 26, formerly of Liskeard, was then jailed for three-and-a-half years after she was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child
Curd, 31, of Watford, was given a life sentence for a minimum of 20 years in prison for Eve’s murder.
The judge told Leatherland that she had failed her daughter and had not taken the appropriate steps to protect her.
Leatherland, 26, formerly of Liskeard, was then jailed for three-and-a-half years after she was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.