Hunter Mathias death: Jury to retire in Barnsley baby murder trial

Leon Mathias is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court

A jury is to retire to consider its verdict in the trial of a father accused of murdering his baby son.

Prosecutors at Sheffield Crown Court allege Leon Mathias, 33, shook to death nine-week-old Hunter in a "moment of frustration" in November 2018.

The labourer, of Barnsley, denies murder and causing GBH with intent.

The judge told the jury their task was to determine whether he was "the sort of person that would behave in a violent way to his own child".

The trial has heard extensive evidence from medical experts about injuries suffered by Hunter, who was taken to Barnsley Hospital in cardio-respiratory arrest on 30 November 2018.

He was transferred to Sheffield Children's Hospital, where he died on 3 December.

Medical examination found Hunter had suffered a bleed on the brain, swelling to the brain and extensive bleeding in the retinas of his eyes.

'Moment of frustration and irritation'

Summing up the trial on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Christina Lambert said the prosecution's case was that Hunter's injuries were caused by "vigorous shaking".

But the court heard Mr Mathias, of Stonebridge Lane, Great Houghton, had denied shaking or harming his son, saying the infant "went floppy" in his arms after he gave him a bath while his partner and Hunter's mother, Rebecca Higginbottom, was downstairs with a friend.

The judge told the jury their task was to determine whether he was "the sort of person that would behave in a violent way to his own child".

She noted friends and family had described Mr Mathias as "a proud father, a loving father, a dedicated father" who had been "over the moon" to become a dad.

But she said the prosecution had not presented the defendant as a violent man but one who "in a moment of frustration and irritation after a long day acted in a rash way".

The court heard a medical expert called as a witness for the defence had said Hunter's cardio-respiratory arrest could have been caused by interstitial pneumonia, a rare disorder affecting the lungs.

Mr Mathias and Ms Higginbottom had reported their son struggling to keep down milk, coughing and spluttering in the weeks before he died, Mrs Justice Lambert said.

But an intensive care doctor and a paediatrician called by the prosecution both said there was no evidence pneumonia had led to Hunter's death.

Prosecutor Robert Smith KC accused Mr Mathias of lying to the court when he said his son had been unwell for three weeks before his death, the trial heard.

The jury in the trial, which began in October last year, is expected to retire on Thursday.