Teenager killed baby son by biting his nose and 'violently swinging him', court hears

Neighbours heard “blood-curdling screams” as a 16-year-old father murdered his baby son by biting his nose and “violently swinging or shaking him,” a court has been told.

The teenage defendant inflicted devastating injuries including a skull fracture, a broken leg and rib fractures on the seven-week-old infant during the “deliberate” killing, a jury heard at Winchester Crown Court heard.

Now aged 17, the young father is on trial for murder following the alleged attack in Southampton, Hampshire, in the early hours 11 February.

The baby’s mother, aged 18 at the time, is accused of child cruelty for allegedly failing to protect her child or seek help for him.

The attack took place at the mother’s one-bedroom flat after the couple returned from a gathering at neighbour’s house, where they had been drinking vodka and beer.

Prosecutor Adam Feest told jurors that the father "inflicted serious and fatal injuries" to the baby who was just short of seven weeks old.

“Most notable amongst those injuries was a serious complex skull fracture to the back of the head, a spiral fracture to the left femur, the long bone at the top of the leg, and numerous fractures to ribs, all of which were sustained very close to the time of his death," he said. “This, taken together with other injuries, bruises, abrasions and significantly a bite to his nose, show that he met with a violent end as a result of an assault or assaults perpetrated against him in a small flat where he was with his father and mother.

“Residents across the road recall hearing what they described as a blood-curdling or painful scream coming from the flat at about 3am.”

One neighbour reported “a gut-wrenching cry of pain coming from a baby, a period of quiet then further screams of the same sort and the same direction”, Mr Feest told the court.

“It was the sort of screaming that turned her stomach,” the prosecutor added. “The crying continued as if nobody was attending the baby.”

After his baby was rushed to hospital, the court heard that the teenage father told a neighbour: “What have I done?”

Mr Feest said: “The explanation he gave police was his son had accidentally fallen from the sofa when having his nappy changed or fallen from his arms when he and [the mother] were arguing. This cannot account for the severity and multiplicity of the injuries sustained. The injuries taken together are in keeping with a violent shaking or swinging, or indeed both.”

The bite mark on the baby’s nose also matched the father’s dental prints, the jury heard.

The court heard the baby’s mother, now aged 19, said she had not sought help because she did not want to lose her son or partner.

Mr Feest added: “It may be she helped clear up the injury that [the father’s] bite caused.”

The jury was shown body-worn police camera footage of her crying in hospital, saying the baby suffered the injuries in an accidental fall.

The defendants, who cannot be named for legal reasons, both deny the charges.

The trial continues.