Life in prison for ‘monster’ foster mum who killed boy

A FOSTER mum was jailed for life yesterday for murdering a baby boy she was hoping to adopt as she was labelled a ‘monster’ by the child’s natural mother.

Laura Castle, 38, smashed Leiland-James Corkill’s head on furniture, Preston Crown Court heard, but then lied to police about the cause.

The tot’s biological mother, Laura Corkill, 39, told the trial judge in a heartfelt letter: ‘He was placed in the home of a monster, a monster that was meant to love, nurture and cherish him as I would have done.’

The boy, pictured, was placed with Castle and her husband Scott, 35, after they applied to Cumbria County Council to adopt a baby.

Within weeks, Castle began physically and verbally abusing the child – and eventually killed the 13-month-old at her home in Barrow-in-Furness in 2020.

She must serve a minimum term of 18 years in jail. Scott Castle was cleared of allowing the death of a child and two charges of child cruelty.