Boy, 9, Dies After Attack by Father at 7 Months Old Left Him Brain-Damaged and Blind

A 9-year-old boy in England has died, years after his father was convicted and sentenced to prison for attacking him and leaving him brain-damaged and blind.

According to reports from the BBC and Metro UK, North Yorkshire Police have opened an investigation after Bradley Nelson died on Oct. 22 from cardiac arrest while hospitalized.

Nelson was left disabled and unable to walk, talk or feed himself after being attacked by his father, Darren Spreadbury, at their home in Whitby in April 2016, the outlets reported. The then 7-month-old also was left blind after the attack, and he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

“Bradley was blind because [Spreadbury] shook him that hard, he snapped his optic nerve and he had a can of Coke’s worth of blood between his brain and his skull,” the boy’s mother, Sharon Boocock, told the BBC.

In 2018, Spreadbury was found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent in the case, after scans found that Nelson’s brain injuries were caused by shaken baby syndrome, the BBC reported. He was sentenced to four years in prison and was given a 10-year restraining order, according to Metro UK. A GoFundMe page organized by one of Boocock’s friends states that Spreadbury served two years of his sentence.

“When they said it was an unexplained, non-accidental head injury, I was like, ‘What are you on about?’ ” Boocock recalled of the moment which led to Spreadbury’s arrest. “It actually took me a long time to believe that they were right.”

Although Nelson returned home from the hospital after his initial diagnoses in 2016, he was hospitalized again in 2022 for severe sepsis and underwent multiple operations, according to the GoFundMe page.

Boocock told the BBC that much of her life was dedicated to caring for her son because of his injuries, though she added that Nelson was “always smiling and happy.”

“I couldn’t go anywhere after [5 p.m.] because Bradley would come home from school and that was me housebound,” she recalled.

The 9-year-old was hospitalized again on Oct. 21 after contracting a virus, per the GoFundMe page. He later suffered a severe epileptic seizure and had two heart attacks.

“I got to sit with him for 10 minutes and then he had another massive cardiac arrest, and they just couldn’t get him back,” Boocock told Metro UK of her son’s death.

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According to the BBC, police have now reopened the case and will investigate to see if further charges should be filed.

“We have been made aware of the death of a nine-year-old boy from the Whitby area, who sadly passed away in hospital on October 22,” a North Yorkshire Police spokesperson told the BBC. “The child had complex medical needs, and an investigation into the cause of his death is currently underway, reflecting due process in such circumstances.”

The GoFundMe page organized on Boocock’s behalf to raise funds for Nelson’s funeral has garnered more than £8,000 (about $10,000) to date.

“When Bradley was hurt, Sharon became his eyes, his voice, his life force and his fiercest advocate,” the fundraiser organizer wrote in part. “Sharon is the very definition of ‘a mother’s love.’ As her best friends, we want to say that, to us, Sharon is inspirational. She is a warrior. she is everything we would want our mum to be.”

North Yorkshire Police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.