Father accused of son's murder has had another baby with same partner, court hears

A court has heard a Mayo man on trial for murdering his baby son has since had another child with the same partner.

The trial heard the couple got back together soon after six-month-old Joshua passed away in June 2013.

It is the prosecution’s case that 40-year-old John Tighe of Lavallyroe in Ballyhaunis murdered his six-month-old son Joshua by placing two tissues in his mouth, which he denies.

Two years after his son died, he was arrested for endangerment and told gardaí that he would never hurt his son and he did everything to try to save him that day.

He denied placing two tissues in Joshua's mouth and believed the baby had put them there while he (John Tighe, pictured below) went to the bathroom for a few minutes.

He told gardaí: "He's dead because of me, but nothing deliberate."

The court heard he had split with the baby’s mother at the time of Joshua’s death on June 1, 2013.

The jury was told the couple got back together on June 25, and have had a baby girl since then, who was born in October 2015.