Baby dead for ’30 mins before murder-accused parents raised alarm’

A premature baby found with injuries to his head and neck would have been dead for at least 30 minutes before his parents raised the alarm, a consultant neonatologist told a trial.

Brendon Staddon, who was born at 33 weeks, suffered multiple fractures while in Somerset’s Yeovil District Hospital’s special care baby unit in March 2024 at just two weeks old.

Daniel Gunter and the baby’s mother, Sophie Staddon, 23, both of no fixed address, deny charges of murder and causing or allowing the child’s death.

Dr David Sweet, who reviewed baby Brendon’s death, said that it usually takes 30 minutes for a newborn’s heart to stop completely after being deprived of oxygen.

A post-mortem concluded Brendon died of a “blunt force impact(s) head injury,” with multiple “non-accidental injuries”, the court was told.

He was later found to have, amongst other injuries, a broken neck, a broken jaw, broken legs, broken ankles and broken wrists.

Hospital staff discovered his injuries when Ms Staddon asked them to check on him because “he was cold” at 4:00 GMT on 5 March, the jury was told.

Dr Sweet, who has 24 years’ experience within the NHS, said that a baby can usually be resuscitated if they are discovered within five or 10 minutes after they stop breathing.

“I would say (Brendan’s) heart was completely stopped when nursing staff discovered him at 4am and I would suggest that it would have been a minimum of 25 to 30 minutes after the injuries occurred,” he said.

Despite being seven weeks premature, Brendan was doing well and would have been expected to go on to have a normal life, Dr Sweet added.

The court previously heard that while in hospital, Mr Gunter repeatedly ignored the advice of nurses and removed him from his incubator.

He also allegedly overstimulated him to the point of causing him distress and removed his nasal gastric tube, and reportedly shouted at him and became frustrated with him when changing his nappy.

“The usual desire when babies are born prematurely is to let them rest and disturb them as little as possible, usually the lights are kept low and the noise level is kept down and too much stimulation can be distressing,” Dr Sweet said.

He said the nature of Brendon’s limb fractures were consistent with “excessive pulling and twisting beyond what would be considered acceptable handling of an infant”.

The trial continues.