A mother and father accused of murdering their baby boy asked about possible jail terms they might face while he lay mortally injured in hospital, a court has heard.
Nursery nurse Ashlea Thomas and husband Paul, who is a builder, deny harming their 11-month-old son Oliver Sargent at their home in Telford, Shropshire.
A jury at Birmingham crown court was told that Oliver suffered a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and there was evidence of haemorrhaging in both eyes. A pathologist recorded 13 marks on the child’s body and face. In the past, he had suffered two fractured ribs and a broken collar bone, it was claimed.
Andrew Smith QC, prosecuting, claimed Oliver had been injured deliberately. What he called the “episode of injury” involved“shaking, together with at least one impact to the left side of the back of the head”.
Oliver was rushed to hospital after his father called 999 from the couple’s home on the evening of 27 July 2012 and said his son had stopped breathing.
The youngster was taken to the local hospital but transferred to Birmingham children’s hospital. While there, Smith said a nurse overheard Ms Thomas, 21, ask her mother: “How long do you think I am going to get?” She later told police it was a reaction to “everyone pointing the finger” of blame.
After the couple’s arrest, Mr Thomas, 29, asked a police officer “what sort of prison sentence one might get for what happened to Oliver”, said Smith. He later told officers this was an innocent inquiry and no indication he had attacked his son. He suggested that the family’s pet dog Rocco may have injured the boy by accidentally sitting on him. Oliver died four days after his collapse.
The prosecutor told the court that Oliver was taken to the Princess Royal hospital in Telford three times in the months before his death. On each occasion, the baby was discharged – despite bruises on his body – having variously been diagnosed with “gastroenteritis”, “constipation”, and “a viral illness”.
During one visit to the hospital on 30 June 2012, a nurse spotted “bruising on his back in two separate places”, while a junior doctor found marks on one of his legs and a rash around his neck. “Asked how these were caused, neither could give an answer,” Smith said.
After further examinations by a senior doctor and then, the following day, a consultant, an explanation was accepted that the bruising was “caused by rolling over his toys”.
But during that stay in hospital, an incident was observed by a nurse, where the boy’s father “took hold of Oliver’s left arm and leg and flipped him over from his back on to his right side saying: “Go to sleep”, prompting his partner to tell him: “Don’t do that”, the court heard.
Smith added: “The nurse thought that his actions were not as gentle as they could have been.” He said Oliver’s case had been discussed at a hospital meeting where a social worker was present but no formal report was made and doctors were satisfied by explanations the bruising had been accidental.
The couple, who have married since the death of the son, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty. The trial, estimated to last five weeks, continues.
