Father lied to police over death of baby

A man accused of killing his four-month-old son lied to police about the incident, a jury heard.

Danny Warr admitted not telling the truth because the circumstances "looked bad" for him, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told yesterday.

He told medics his partner Rebecca Lloyd was also in the bedroom of the family's Black Country home when it was realised their son Jayden had stopped breathing. The child suffered "catastrophic and unsurvivable" brain injuries after being shaken or thrown on June 18, 2009, alleged prosecutor Miss Sally Howes QC.

The child had recovered after stopping breathing when alone with Warr at the family's three-bedroom home in Bromford Lane, West Bromwich three weeks earlier on May 24, it was claimed.

Miss Howes continued: "He lied that his partner had been present the second time because it would look bad for him that he had been alone with Jayden on both occasions that the baby stopped breathing.

"He persuaded his partner to support the story and she did this because she did not want to believe that Warr was in any way responsible for killing their son but she later admitted to the police that she had been downstairs when it happened.

"When Warr was told this he replied: 'It was her idea as well to say that because we both knew that basically I am going to be in the picture for harming Jayden if it comes out that I had been alone with him both times he stopped breathing'."

Jayden was rushed to Sandwell General Hospital on June 18 where he was resuscitated and put on a life support machine before being transferred to an intensive care unit at Alder Hay Hospital in Liverpool, where he died on June 24.

He had suffered bleeding around the brain and eyes and extensive brain injury due to lack of oxygen, said Miss Howes.

Warr denies manslaughter and assault and the trial continues today.