A mother and her boyfriend who subjected a two-year-old boy to months of escalating abuse have been convicted, after detectives unpicked a web of lies the pair had constructed to conceal their actions from paramedics, doctors and police.
Kol Page was found unresponsive at an address in Bromley in April 2022, with severe bruising to his face and a serious abdominal injury. He survived but never recovered, spending fourteen months in hospital before moving into foster care. He died on 29 June 2024, aged four years and three months.
Zoe Coutts, 35, Kol’s mother, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday of allowing the death of a child. Her boyfriend Scott O’Connor, 36, was convicted of manslaughter. Both had been acquitted of murder following the four-week trial. They are due to be sentenced on 8 May.
From the outset, both had sought to explain away Kol’s injuries. O’Connor told police the toddler was “very clumsy” and had fallen from his cot onto toy bricks. Coutts initially told paramedics he had fallen from a highchair, then changed her account on police arrival. She later sought to place all blame on O’Connor, alleging he had sexually abused her son.
Investigators found the claims did not withstand scrutiny. Mobile phone records placed O’Connor at the family home on 28 occasions in the month before Kol was found, including 16 overnight stays — despite Coutts residing in accommodation designated for domestic abuse victims, where male visitors were not permitted.
Photographs recovered during the investigation documented injuries of increasing severity over that same period, including repeated black eyes and a bald patch where hair had been pulled from Kol’s head. Medical experts said the black eyes were consistent only with direct blows from an adult, and that the hair loss could not have been self-inflicted.
Messages exchanged between the couple were also recovered, in which they shared images of Kol’s injuries and made jokes about hurting him. On the morning Kol was found, the pair had been exchanging messages about their hangovers and plans for food — with no mention of the child’s condition.
When Coutts discovered her son was not breathing, she called a friend rather than the emergency services. Doctors believe the delay without oxygen contributed significantly to the brain damage Kol sustained.
Kol spent the final period of his life in the care of a foster family. Detective Chief Inspector Kate Blackburn, who led the homicide investigation, described him as “boisterous, cheeky and endlessly loving,” and said he had been let down by those who should have protected him most.
