A WORKINGTON man has appeared before a court charged with murdering a baby boy and child neglect.

At Carlisle's Rickergate court, Reece Kelly, 30, was told that he is accused or murdering the four-month-old child on October 15 last year.

He also faces two child neglect allegations, one relating to the child who died and a second identical allegation relating to a second surviving boy, aged under three.

Alongside Kelly in the dock was 22-year-old Georgia Wright, who has been charged with two counts of child neglect and with one allegation of  “allowing” the death of the child named in the murder charge.

Neither defendant entered any pleas to the allegations they face.

The hearing began with the court clerk telling both defendants the wording of the charges they face. For Kelly, from Hunday Court, Workington, the first charge is that he murdered Dallas Kelly, a four-month-old boy.

The neglect charges relate to both that child and a sibling, a boy said to be aged around two and a half years old.

The wording of that charge states that the defendant, who wore a dark grey fleece as he stood in the dock beside security staff, committed theose two offences between May 23, 2021 and October 15 last  year at Workington.

He is alleged to have “wilfully assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned or exposed the child in a manner that would have caused him unnecessary suffering or injury." There is an identical second charge that relates to the surviving sibling.

Wright, who wore a light grey T-shirt, was then given the detail of the three charges she faces – two identical neglect child neglect allegations during the same period and the "causing or allowing" the death of a child.

That charge states that, on October 19, 2021, at Workington, “being a member of the same household as and having frequent contact with a person who was at that time a child [the child who died], you caused that person’s death or were, or ought to have been, aware that there was a significant risk of serious physical harm being caused to that person by the unlawful act of a member of his household.”

This occurred, said the charge, in “circumstances which you foresaw or ought to have foreseen and you failed to take such steps as you  could reasonable have been expected to take to protect him from that risk.”

In court, following an application from Newsquest Cumbria, District Judge John Temperley imposed an order which prevents the reporting of the surviving child’s full name or whereabouts.

The other details of the case can, however, be fully reported.

Following the half-hour hearing, District Judge Temperley sent the case to Carlisle Crown Court for a hearing on Friday morning. Kelly was remanded in custody while Wright was granted conditional bail.

Cumbria Police have issued an appeal to readers, reminding them that this case is live and no comments should be made publicly which could prejudice the case.