Devastated mother fooled into believing evil killer’s innocence
SHE loved and trusted him so deeply that she defended him only hours after her daughter died.
But Anne Marie White, 22, would later learn that the man she had let into her home had broken that trust and savagely beaten her two-year- old daughter to death.
Kevin Park, 27, fooled the young mother into believing that little Madison had died after falling from her bed while playing, despite rumours that he had killed her.
Writing on her Facebook page only hours after Madison was pronounced dead at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Miss White said that Park ‘would never hurt’ the toddler.
She hit out at speculation in her home town of Kelty, Fife, that suggested Park had played a role in Madison’s death.
The couple had been together only five months when the toddler died on April 20.
Miss White said: ‘Well I suppose everyone knows I lost my precious little girl last night and I know what everyone is saying, especially about Kevin. I just want to say that he would never hurt her. This was just an accident. It would have happened if I was in the house. He’s not a bad person.’
She said that she was ‘pretty certain’ Park would protect her daughter, just like he would his own kids.
‘He wouldn’t let anything happen to his own kids so I’m pretty certain that he wouldn’t hurt Madison,’ Miss White added. ‘He loves her to bits. He will miss her.’ Park had only recently moved in with Miss White and Madison.
On the night of her daughter’s death, the young mother had been out celebrating her friend’s birthday and had left Park, who has two children of his own, i n charge of Madison.
Like many mothers, she believed that the person she had left looking after her beloved daughter could be trusted to make sure the child remained safe.
Yet in the short time she was gone, Park attacked and killed the youngster.
The morning after Madison’s ‘lifeless body’ was urgently admitted to hospital, neighbours said that they had seen Park being escorted from Miss White’s ground floor flat into a police car, fuelling speculation he had killed the child.
Giving evidence in court, Miss White said that she was ‘content’ to leave Madison in Park’s care and that her daughter had been ‘hyper’ when she left.
Contrary to Miss White’s statement online after her daughter’s death, Police Constable John McDiarmid said that Park was more interested in smoking than in looking after Madison.
He was giving evidence at the High Court in Glasgow last week about what he witnessed after arriving at Miss White’s home.
PC McDiarmid said: ‘There was no asking how she was. His main concern was trying to roll a cigarette.’
Paramedic Paul Cooney, who battled to save Madison, said that Park ‘wasn’t really upset’ despite the youngster’s serious condition.