Friend warned man of ex-partner's 'lies' - baby death

Jack Wheeler and Melissa Wilband deny causing the death of Lexi Wilband

A friend of a man accused of killing a baby warned him not to fall for the "lies" of his ex-partner when she asked him to say they had bathed the child together, a court has been told.

Melissa Wilband, 28, and her ex partner Jack Wheeler, 31, deny two charges relating to the death of her four-month-old daughter Lexi Wilband in April 2020.

They are accused of manslaughter and causing or allowing her death in Newent, Gloucestershire.

Giving evidence, Mr Wheeler's friend, Jodylea Boulton, told the jury about a conversation she had with him about events leading up to Lexi's collapse.

'He wasn't there'

"He had told me he was really worried, and he didn't know what to do and I said 'why?', and he said the kids had been in the bath," she told the court.

"Melissa had bathed the kids, and he wasn't sure what had happened in the bath, but Melissa had asked him to say he was with her when she bathed the kids.

"But he wasn't there and didn't know what to do."

A post-mortem examination gave Lexi's cause of death as bleeding to the brain, caused by a non-accidental traumatic event such as someone "shaking her violently".

Ms Boulton said she asked Mr Wheeler further questions about this but did not get many answers.

"He was really confused and seemed like he was in despair and didn't know what to do," she said.

Later, she sent him a message via Facebook, which said: "Never doubt yourself x You are one of the most kindest, loveable, funniest, big hearted people I know x

"Please don't think any of this was your fault x If she is asking you to lie or say things that didn't then that goes to show she is trying to hide something x

"Don't fall for her lies this time, Jack, Please x"

Lexi Wilband died at Bristol Children's Hospital on 18 April 2020

Ms Boulton said the reference to "lies" was about Ms Wilband's deception over the paternity of Lexi.

The court has heard how Ms Wilband had told Mr Wheeler throughout her pregnancy that he was Lexi's biological father and had faked a paternity certificate.

Ms Boulton was asked why she sent that message to Wheeler and she replied:

"Because Jack does doubt himself a lot and he's quite a gullible person and I just didn't want him to go along with something if he hadn't done what had been done."

'Floppy in his arms'

David Aubrey, KC, representing Ms Wilband, asked the witness what Mr Wheeler had told her about Lexi's collapse.

Mr Wheeler told police Lexi "suddenly stopped crying and went floppy in his arms" after he picked her up from a bouncer chair to give her a bottle.

Ms Boulton confirmed she could not remember Mr Wheeler saying anything about what happened.

Mr Aubrey asked whether Lexi had started screaming and that Mr Wheeler had picked her up out of the bouncer and had tried giving her a bottle, then a dummy, and had also cradled her in his arms before going floppy.

"You don't remember him mentioning anything of that at all, do you?" Mr Aubrey asked.

Ms Boulton replied: "I can't remember anything like that. I don't know that it wasn't said, I just can't remember.

"It was a long time ago."

Ms Wilband, of Newent, and Mr Wheeler, of Ledbury, Herefordshire, deny charges of manslaughter, and of causing or allowing Lexi's death.

The trial continues.