Murder-accused parents 'blame each other' for son's death
During his summing up the judge, Mr Justice Swift, said that despite being born prematurely, Brendon was doing well and had already made the transition from nasal to bottle feeding.But upon his death he was found to have, amongst other injuries, a broken neck, a broken jaw, broken legs, broken ankles and broken wrists.Over his short life, nursing staff at the Somerset hospital had many concerns about his parents' behaviour, particularly Mr Gunter's repeated rough handling of him.Mr Gunter was seen getting angry with Brendon while changing his nappy.
The couple left the hospital on 29 February, eight days after Brendon was born, and did not return until the afternoon of 4 March.At about 04:00 GMT the following day, Ms Staddon came to the nurses' station and asked staff to check Brendon because he was cold and floppy.Mr Gunter said "he's fine, he's fine" even as nurses began the resuscitation process, the jury heard.He then asked if the two of them could "go out for air" while the team worked.
The court heard that when he was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, Mr Gunter said to police: "What are you on about?, I've done nothing wrong mate," and "I've done nothing wrong sir, she's done all this," when he was re-arrested for murder.When Ms Staddon was cautioned, she replied: "My baby's dead, you're telling me my baby's dead, I didn't kill my baby."She added later: "It wouldn't have been me it would've been his dad".The jury are due to retire to consider their verdict on Wednesday.
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