Parents who are accused of murder allegedly smoked outside of a hospital while medics were trying to save their baby's life.
A court heard that the child, Brendon Staddon, suffered "catastrophic injuries" to his head, neck, legs, and jaw during his time in the special care baby unit of Yeovil District Hospital in March last year.
Parents Accused of Baby's Murder
The boy's parents, identified as 27-year-old Daniel Gunter and 21-year-old Sophie Staddon, are facing murder accusations and causing or allowing their child's death, which they deny. Part of the prosecuting team, Charles Row KC, cited the "level of sheer brutality" regarding the case.
He noted that there was hardly any part of the victim's body was spared, adding that his injuries were consistent with a "severe crush injury." The jury heard that hospital staff members found the child's injuries after the mother asked them to check on the boy because "he was cold."
Earlier that night, it was said that the father asked a nurse for milk so he could feed his son, but when the hospital employee later checked on him, he answered in a way that she "considered odd," according to BBC.
Row said that the father seemed "excited" and that his response was "unusually animated" while "nodding exaggeratedly." Then, the mother started to cry hysterically and said that she wanted to see her son.
Non-Accidental Injuries
Hospital staff later found the child lying in his cot with his baby grow open and saw that, on top of being cold, he also had various serious injuries. A post-mortem showed that the boy died of "blunt force impact(s) head injury" and had multiple "non-accidental injuries."
In court, jurors heard that the boy's father was allegedly a controlling individual and had violent tendencies towards his partner because he sometimes wondered if the child was biologically his, The Guardian reported.
The father was accused of controlling his partner's finances, dictating how she could speak to and spend time with, what and how much she ate, and when she smoked. The court also heard that Staddon told one acquaintance that Guner said he did not want the child.
Row added that authorities became concerned about the couple and had several meetings to decide whether the child should be taken into care after he was born. He said that Staddon claims she had no idea about her son being physically hurt, noting that if she did, she would have told a hospital staff, as per Yahoo News.
