THE TRIAL of Southampton man accused of causing or allowing the death of a three-week-old boy is set to continue today.

Samuel Davies, of Mayfield Road, Southampton, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of causing or allowing the death of Stanley Davis.

The 24-year-old, who is not the baby's biological father, is accused alongside the child's mother, Roxanne Davis, 30, of Lee Road, Gosport.

On Thursday, Davies denied harming the boy to the jury.

The court has heard that Stanley died at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth of a skull fracture and brain haemorrhage at just 24 days old on March 28 last year.

He had also suffered 32 fractures to his ribs and nine to his arms and legs, sustained on three separate occasions.

Davies told the court the first time he had been aware of any injury suffered by Stanley was on March 16 when a health visitor spotted a bruise behind his ear.

He said he was told by the health visitor to leave and calm down after he became "agitated".

He denied causing the bruise and said he had previously believed it was a birthmark because that was what other people had told him.

He said: "I stormed off because, the way I look at it, that's the first time I have seen a mark on my son. It agitated me. I'm not going to stand and be calm that my son had a bruise behind his ear."

 

The court heard that he sent a text message to Davis saying: "We need to start watching how people are holding him, now I'm not going to take my eyes off him."

He said Stanley was looked after by himself and his co-defendant and her family. He added: "That baby from day two was passed around like a parcel."

Davies, who admitted regularly taking cocaine and cannabis, described violent arguments between himself and Davis during which she spat at him and punched him and broke items in his flat.

He added: "She would smash things up in the flat, ornaments, it would wind me up."

The court previously heard that on March 15, Davies had taken a photo of an article in The Sun newspaper 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.

James Newton-Price QC, prosecuting, earlier told the jury: "The prosecution ask rhetorically: what is Sam's interest in that court case."

Davies said he took the photo because he had been shocked by the case and added: "I couldn't believe what I was witnessing being a first-time dad, seeing a mother can actually take her dead child on a bus and say it wasn't dead.

"I thought it was outrageous, I wanted to share it with Roxanne. We both said it was disgusting."

The defendants, who share similar surnames but are not married, both deny the charge and the trial continues.