Northampton drug dealer found guilty of murdering his own son in brutal attack

A Northampton drug dealer has been found guilty of murdering his two-year-old son.
Police at the scene of Raphael Kennedy's house. Today a jury has found him guilty of murdering his son last December.Police at the scene of Raphael Kennedy's house. Today a jury has found him guilty of murdering his son last December.
Police at the scene of Raphael Kennedy's house. Today a jury has found him guilty of murdering his son last December.

Raphael Kennedy, 31, beat toddler Dylan to death at his flat in Arthur Street before waiting over an hour to call an ambulance.Kennedy denied the charge and claimed someone else must have carried out the brutal assault during a 15-minute window when he left Dylan alone in the unlocked flat and dealt drugs in an alleyway.But at Northampton Crown Court today (October 19), a jury unanimously convicted him of killing the boy after deliberating for just seven hours.Dylan had 39 external injuries when he died on December 15, 2017, including at least 13 broken ribs and lacerations to his liver. During the three-week trial, the court heard that his injuries were consistent with abuse.A post-mortem also revealed the toddler also had cocaine in his bloodstream when he died and had high levels of cannabis, heroin and crack-cocaine in his hair fibres.Kennedy found out Dylan was his child just 11 weeks before the tot died.When he took the stand to testify, he called Dylan “my little bestie” and said he “would never hurt him”.He had sole care of the toddler when the two-year-old was beaten to death. Doctors also found ‘tram track bruising’ caused by attacks with a straight rod or strip, suggesting that Kennedy used a weapon when he hit Dylan.Kennedy will be sentenced next month.

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