Kylie Jade Priest: Mother and boyfriend found guilty of killing her three-year-old daughter

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Kylie-Jade Kahn, right, was killed by her mother, Nicola Kahn and Callum Redfern, left

Kaylee-Jayde Priest was found dead in the apartment she lived in with her mother, Nicola Priest, on August 9 last year.

The child’s mother called 999 but the jury convicted the pastor after hearing that the child “died before the call was made.”

The young man, described by the court as a “happy child”, died of serious injuries to the chest and abdomen.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that medical examinations later revealed that she had suffered historic injuries including broken ribs, lower leg fractures and a broken sternum.

The priest, 23, and her lover Calum Redfern, 22, of Dudley, blamed each other’s fingers during their trial, but at the time they were in a “close sexual relationship.”

Both were unanimously acquitted of the murder but were found guilty of killing the child on Thursday.

New CCTV footage shows Kylie Jade Priest and her mother coming and going from their home just hours before Kylie Jade passed away.

The jurors had heard how the pastor was hitting Kylie around the head and referring to her as a “naughty ******”, while the young man was heard crying in a “scary tone”.

On one occasion, neighbors in an apartment below in Kingshurst House, Solihull, remembered hearing a thump upstairs and then Kaylee crying, before hearing the Reverend say, “I’ll just say she fell out of bed.”

The same residents claimed to have noticed that “when Kylie cried, the response seemed to be to drown her in tears with music.”

In a text message exchanged on July 24, 2020, days before Kylie’s death, the pastor told Redfern, “I’m going to kill her…because she keeps leaving the living room or going into the kitchen, so she turned pale (hit me) and hit her because she shit in her nappy.”

Well–give her one of mine,” said Redfern.

The priest replied, “I will, my love.”

Nicholas Priest. Photo: West Midlands Police

Three days later, Redfern sent a letter to the priest, saying, “I will keep the little boy away from me…I’m sick of your spinning daughter.”

Prosecutors said the messages painted a vivid picture of the “indifferent attitude of Reverend Redfern towards Kylie”.

Opening the case at the start of the trial, prosecutors’ attorney Andrew Smith QC said: “The prosecution’s case is that her death resulted from serious injuries to the chest and abdomen in a sustained assault on August 8 last year.

“This premeditated assault occurred when the two defendants were alone with Kylie Jade.”

Kylie Jade Priest

Since the pastor moved into the apartment in mid-2019, neighbors have heard her “scream with real regularity” at Kylie, including comments like “shut up,” “get away,” or “leave me alone” — and “never anything positive or kind.”

On the CCTV shown in court, Kaylee-Jayde and her mother are seen together, just hours before the boys’ fatal collapse, using an elevator in the apartment building they were living in.

The footage showed the priest’s complete lack of interest in her daughter. Over and over again checking her own reflection in the mirror and browsing her phone, the little girl periodically stared at her mother’s face.

At no point in the footage was there any physical contact between the couple, with the priest ignoring even extending her daughter’s hand.

The pastor was also convicted of child cruelty, in connection with the young man’s historic injuries, but Redfern was acquitted of the charge.

Kaylee-Jayde Priest, appeared on CCTV just hours before her death

In a statement released by police after the verdicts, Kylie’s grandmother Debbie Windmill said the impact of her death would live with her for the rest of her life.

She said, “I couldn’t stop staring at the smile on her pretty face.

“I loved every moment I watched her develop into almost school age; preparing to buy my first grandson a preschool outfit filled me with such happiness.

“I couldn’t wait to see her in it, but this opportunity was stolen from me in the most cruel way.

“Everyone deserves the gift of life. Kaylee-Jayde deserves to show the world who you could have been and what greatness you could have given this world. Your nanny will keep you in her heart forever.”

Callum Redfern. Photo: West Midlands Police

Speaking afterwards, Detective Inspector Adam Jobson said: “This is a really terrifying set of circumstances and I can’t imagine for a second what the Kylie Jade family is going through, they have lost a three-year-old member of their family in the hands of her mother and friend Nikki Priest Callum. .

“I don’t think, unfortunately, that we’ll ever know what happened, and we’ll never get that full picture, and neither of them have admitted their responsibility.

“One thing is clear, Nikki Priest has failed her daughter, you have failed to protect her and she must have been – being the mother of that little girl – the only person who should have been able to protect her.”

The pastor, of Poplar Street, Edgbaston, Birmingham and Redfern, will be judged on Temple Street, Dudley, on Friday.

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