Father denies poisoning baby son to avoid moving out

A father today denied trying to kill his weeks-old baby by smothering him and poisoning him with powerful painkillers so he could continue living with the boy’s mother.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wanted to stay with his partner and her family in their house, rather than return to his own flat nearby, which had no gas or electricity.

The father, who is in his 30s and from the North East of England, is accused of trying to kill the baby by giving him codeine and smothering him with his hand.

The defendant denies unlawfully administering a poison so as to endanger life, child cruelty, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm with intent.

The four charges relate to autumn 2008 when the North East England-born baby was only weeks old.

The court heard the defendant met his partner over the internet in December 2007 and she had quickly fallen pregnant.

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds said the couple had agreed the defendant would move in a week before the birth to help out and would stay for another week after the birth.

“You knew full well that after seven days you were having to go back to your flat, so you needed something to keep you at the house,” Mr Dodds told the defendant during cross-examination.

“To deflect attention away from the fact it is time to go home you poisoned the child. You poisoned [the baby] with codeine.”

Mr Dodds also accused the defendant of trying to smother his baby son.

Cupping his hand over his own mouth and nose, the prosecutor asked the defendant: “You have covered his mouth and nose haven’t you?

“When you were alone with him you covered his mouth and nose and started to suffocate him, your own son.”

The defendant replied: “Certainly not, never. I have never ever suffocated my son.”

During the first two months of the baby’s life he was admitted to four different hospitals across the region with symptoms that perplexed doctors.

They became suspicious about the pattern of his admissions and police and social services became involved.

In the majority of the times the child fell ill – becoming limp, pale and unresponsive – he had been in the sole care of his father, the prosecution alleged.

The defendant remained calm and unemotional when his son was receiving emergency care, which alerted hospital staff.

One episode of illness was so bad he would have died but for the hospital treatment he received.

Afterwards, the painkiller Tramadol was found in a sample of the baby’s blood. Previous tests had found codeine in his system.

Other times the boy suddenly deteriorated, then rapidly improved following treatment.

The defendant told police during interview in April last year that his partner would regularly drink a bottle of vodka a day – a claim denied by the prosecution.

“By the April you were desperate to darken her image because you knew full well that someone had poisoned that child,” Mr Dodds said. “Either it’s you or her and you knew it’s you.”

In those interviews he tried to blame his partner for giving his son the drugs overdose.

“The only explanation I can give is that [the baby’s mother] gave it somehow, but I do not know how or when,” he told detectives.

Mr Dodds asked the defendant about an incident in which the baby’s mother found a small white codeine tablet in his cot.

“If she is the person poisoning the child, giving the child codeine and putting it in the Moses basket, isn’t it strange she’s the one pointing it out?,” he asked the defendant.

“Is it not a better explanation that while giving the child codeine, you have dropped one in the Moses basket?”

Mr Dodds added: “The position is that you have never seen [baby’s mother] do anything to [the baby].

“You have never seen her hurt him, never her cause him any distress at all.”

The defendant also denied telling a friend that he had given his son cardio-pulmonary resuscitation so that she would feel sorry for him.

“It is a lie you told her because you knew full well that when these things happened you are the person with [the baby],” Mr Dodds said. “You are the person who wants people to feel sorry for you.”

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.