Gosport baby 'died from skull fracture'

Stanley Davis, pictured about a week before he was taken to hospital, died on 28 March last year

A three-week-old baby boy died from a skull fracture and had previously suffered 41 fractures to his ribs, legs and arms, a court has heard.

Stanley Davis died in hospital a week after being taken from a flat in Forton Road, Gosport, on 21 March last year.

His mother Roxanne Davis, 30, and her partner at the time, Sam Davies, 24, both denied causing or allowing the death of a child.

Jurors heard they both tested positive for drugs the day after the death.

Prosecutors were unable to tell jurors at Winchester Crown Court who caused the fatal injury.

"Stanley was unlawfully killed by the violent actions of one of these two defendants," prosecutor James Newton-Price QC told the court.

"The other... allowed it to happen," he said.

He said the skull fracture, which led to a fatal brain haemorrhage, probably occurred 16 days after Stanley's birth.

The baby's mother, Roxanne Davis, had depression during the pregnancy, the jury was told

By that time the infant had suffered 32 rib fractures and nine fractures to his arms and legs, apparently inflicted on three separate occasions, Mr Newton-Price said.

"If one of them was doing this, then the other did nothing to stop it happening again," he told the court.

Ms Davis, of Lee Road, Gosport, who wept throughout the court hearing, had depression during the pregnancy, the jury was told.

Mr Davies, of Mayfield Road, Southampton, was her partner at the time but not the baby's father, the prosecutor said.

The court heard in the days following the birth the defendants exchanged frequent angry texts.

In one message, Ms Davis wrote: "Everyone is going to know what a woman-beater and drug-user you are."

Jurors were told there were "quite common" references to cannabis and cocaine use in the messages.

The court heard the baby was fatally injured in Mr Davies' flat in Gosport where the couple were living

On one occasion the police were called to their flat at Garland Court after a neighbour reported "banging, screaming and shouting" and "a sequence of sounds as if someone was falling down the stairs", Mr Newton-Price said.

Mr Davies was "very aggressive" towards police officers who visited and asked to see the baby, the court heard.

It was heard four days later, on 15 March, Mr Davies took a photo on his phone of a newspaper article about a mother who had taken her dead baby on to a bus to avoid detection over the child's death from a head injury.

The prosecutor said Stanley suffered his first set of rib fractures at about that time.

Scarred mouth

The following day, a health visitor noticed a large mark on the baby's head.

A hospital consultant who examined the infant later that day thought it might be a birthmark, although it later turned out to be a 2cm by 3cm bruise, the court heard.

A midwife found a scar in the baby's mouth on 18 March "as if something had been forced inside", the jury was told.

The couple then had a "significant and violent argument" on 19 March, two days before the baby was found fatally injured, the prosecutor said.

In a text to his partner the following day, Mr Davies said: "I have never in my life acted like that... It kills me when you hit me, spit in my face."

Ms Davis replied: "After that, I can't come back, sorry... You smashed my mirror."

The following day, she phoned a GP and asked for social services but the call was cut off after the sound of a crash, Mr Newton-Price told the court.

'Considerable force'

Mr Newton-Price said the fatal head wound was probably caused on the evening of 20 March, when the baby was alone with both defendants.

The jury was shown a Facebook video uploaded by Ms Davis that night in which she cheerfully said to the twitching baby: "What are you doing?"

A neurologist would give evidence that the video showed the infant having fits after sustaining a "severe blunt force injury", he said.

Experts who examined the baby said the fatal skull fracture was inflicted with "considerable force" and the rib fractures had been caused by "sustained squeezing".

No medical attention was sought until the following day when Ms Davis took Stanley to a midwife appointment, the court heard.

Midwives found the baby to be "white and yellowy, not gripping and floppy" and called an ambulance, the prosecutor added.

'All our fault'

He died seven days later, on 28 March, at Southampton General Hospital.

Life support was withdrawn and he was placed in his mother's arms.

The jury was told Ms Davis was heard to say to her partner: "This is all our fault."

Mr Davies also said to the dying infant: "I wasn't there for you. Mummy loved you. Someone will pay for this."

The court heard each defendant called the other a "murderer" during subsequent police interviews.

The trial continues.