Parents told police they did not harm premature baby who died at neonatal unit

Independent

16-07-2025

A mother and father accused of murdering their premature baby in a special care baby unit told police they did not harm him, a court heard.
Brendon Staddon suffered injuries to his head, neck, legs and jaw while on the ward at the Yeovil District Hospital in Somerset on March 5 last year.
His parents, Daniel Gunter, 27, and Sophie Staddon, 23, are both accused of murder and causing or allowing the two-week-old baby's death.
Bristol Crown Court heard nurses discovered Brendon's injuries – described as 'catastrophic' by the prosecution – after Staddon told nurses her son was cold and asked them to check on him.
The baby, who was born at 33 weeks' gestation and weighed 1.83kg at birth, was carried to the resuscitation area but did not respond to treatment and was pronounced dead at 4.59am.
On Wednesday, jurors at Bristol Crown Court were read transcripts of interviews Staddon and Gunter had with police after their arrest.
Staddon told police she had been woken in the night by Gunter telling her to inform nurses that Brendon was cold.
She said: 'I went to check him. I felt him. He was cold. I told the nurses. They turned the light on and saw he was blue.
'I started crying. Dan pulled me away and said 'let them do their job'. I was crying and really upset. Dan was also upset.
'Doctors and nurses came in and surrounded Brendon.'
Staddon said the couple initially waited inside before going out for some fresh air, with police officers arresting them a short time later.
'I remember asking if they were telling me my baby was dead,' she said in interview.
'I had done nothing to harm Brendon at all. I love him. He was my everything. I would not have harmed him.'
After his arrest, Gunter was recorded as saying: 'How can you say that we killed our baby?' and 'That kid was my world, I would do anything for him'.
In a statement provided to police at interview, Gunter described how Staddon had been sleeping in a bed while he was in a chair, with Brendon's cot behind a screen.
He told how he heard the baby do a 'little cry' at about 3am and checked on him.
'He was in his cot, on his back,' Gunter said. 'He was white. We touched his skin and he was cold and white.
'We didn't lift him out of the cot. We went to get the nurse. They came in and said he was not alright.
'This was the last time I saw my baby.'
He added: 'At no stage did I do anything to Brendon that could have caused him any injury.
'I was with Sophie the whole time and she didn't do anything either.'
In a separate statement, Gunter said: 'I would never hurt my baby boy.'
A post-mortem examination found Brendon died of 'blunt force impact(s) head injury' with multiple non-accidental injuries to the head.
Earlier in the trial, Charles Row KC, prosecuting, told jurors that the baby was covered in bruises to his face, scalp, chest and abdomen, shoulder, hands, legs and feet.
'There was hardly a part of his body that was spared,' Mr Row said.
The jury heard that Gunter and Staddon had an on-off relationship, with allegations that he was violent towards her on occasion.
In January 2024, a social worker visited the couple and told them that authorities were planning to remove the baby from their care when he was born.
Gunter and Staddon, both of no fixed address, deny charges of murder and causing or allowing Brendon's death.
Their trial continues.