The mother of a baby whose ribs and skull were fractured told a jury she had falsely confessed in a desperate bid to get her sons back.
The ten-strong jury at Hove Crown Court is now considering its verdict after the Hove mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave evidence on Monday.
The court was previously told she had confessed both in writing and in a police interview more than a year after the five-month-old’s injuries were discovered at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital.
She then said she had sometimes squeezed the child, and had accidentally knocked his head on a doorframe.
But the mother, who is now 35, has now retracted the confession, saying she hoped by taking the blame, the baby and his toddler brother would be returned to her partner, and the family would be reunited when she left prison.
Summing up her evidence yesterday, Judge Christine Henson QC said: “She had lost her family through the family courts and all she could think about was getting back her children.
“If she admitted it, he could reclaim their children . . . be there post prison, waiting for her when she came out.
“She said she knew he wouldn’t be prepared to admit responsibility and so that’s why she did it. She said she had no doubt that that ploy would work.
“She wanted her partner to recover the children as he was the only person who could do that.”
The mother denies two charges, one of of child neglect and one of grievous bodily harm.
The injuries were discovered after the father became concerned about the baby crying continuously when he was caring for him while the mother was at work in the evening.
He texted her, and she immediately came home, calling an ambulance on her way. Once she was back, the baby settled and she suggested cancelling the ambulance, but the father said no.
He had previously heard her swearing at the child, who was a very bad sleeper, in the middle of the night, and had told her not to use bad language.
She had replied, “Yes, but he’s not f***ing sleeping.”
Defending, Jonathan Ray said that the mother had taken the baby to all its check ups, to the GP several times and to the Royal Alex just days before the skull fracture was discovered.
He said: “What a brave thing for a person to do if they were guilty of inflecting these injuries.
“She must have been quivering every time she was walking down to the doctors, thinking well the doctor must notice something now.
“But she wasn’t aware of the significant injuries that had been inflicted on her son.”
And of her evidence that she was trying to regain her children by confessing, he said: “”It’s not a logical route. It’s a route that somebody so disturbed and distressed at the time would come up with.”
