MAN SHOOK FOUR-WEEK-OLD BABY BOY SO VIOLENTLY HE SUFFERED FATAL BRAIN DAMAGE
Warning: This profile contains details readers may find distressing.A mother described her reaction after discovering her four-week-old son appearing limp on his father's lap, stating she "screamed and ran out of the house" after witnessing the scene, a court was told.
Tony Bartlett, aged 39, faces allegations of shaking his infant son Atticus to death, coinciding with his partner Evelyn Ballentyne changing upstairs during their first night out since the child's birth.
Ballentyne recounted to Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday that she observed Atticus' face turn grey before she realised he was no longer alive.
Atticus succumbed in hospital from brain trauma following the incident at their Somerset home in July 2022.
Bartlett, from Axminster in Devon, denies charges of manslaughter and murder.
During her testimony, Ballentyne explained she came downstairs on July 16, 2022, and heard her baby making two gasping sounds.
She compared the sounds to those made during the final moments of life, explaining, "If you have ever watched someone pass away, towards the end of their life, they make funny noises and that's what he did," she said.
She further testified that Atticus had been lying face down on Bartlett's lap before he was flipped over.
Describing the moment she saw her son, she said, 'Atticus's head just flopped back, he wasn't alive,' and began crying.
Ballentyne added, "I just screamed and ran out of the house," Ballentyne said.
"I thought I rang 999 but I didn't." The court heard Ballentyne previously gave accounts she had picked Atticus up and gently shaken him to revive him.
However, she told the jury this was not the case.
"My memory is very clear now of that night," she added.
Representing Bartlett, Nigel Power KC suggested Ballentyne had sought to "minimise" her actions – which she denied.
He asked her: "Tony didn't do anything to harm Atticus, did he?" "Yes he did," Ballentyne replied.
Atticus had been cared for by his grandmother and her husband earlier in the evening, while Bartlett and Ballentyne went to a pub and comedy club.
Jurors previously heard Bartlett had consumed up to nine pints of beer and was left to feed Atticus while his partner went upstairs to change.
Prosecutor Charles Row KC said Bartlett violently shook Atticus so hard he caused severe internal injuries to his brain and spinal cord.
Several of Atticus's ribs were also cracked, the jury was told.
Atticus died in hospital on 23 July 2022.
The trial continues.
