Friend warned man accused of manslaughter about ex-partner's 'lies', court told
Two people are on trial charged with the murder of a baby in Newent.
A friend of a man accused of killing a baby warned him not to fall for the "lies" of his ex-partner when she asked him to say they had bathed the child together, a court heard.
Jack Wheeler, 31, is on trial alongside his then partner, Melissa Wilband, 28, charged with the manslaughter of four-month-old Lexi Wilband.
The emergency services were called to Wilband's home in Newent, Gloucestershire, on the evening of April 12 2020 after Lexi suddenly collapsed.
Giving evidence, Wheeler's friend, Jodylea Boulton, told the jury about a conversation she had with him about events leading up to Lexi's collapse.
"He had told me he was really worried, and he didn't know what to do and I said why, and he said the kids had been in the bath," she told the court.
"Melissa had bathed the kids, and he wasn't sure what had happened in the bath, but Melissa had asked him to say he was with her when she bathed the kids.
"But he wasn't there and didn't know what to do."
She said she asked Wheeler further questions about this but did not get many answers.
"He was really confused and seemed like he was in despair and didn't know what to do," she said.
Later, she sent him a message via Facebook, which said: "Never doubt yourself x You are one of the most kindest, loveable, funniest, big hearted people I know x
"Please don't think any of this was your fault x If she is asking you to lie or say things that didn't then that goes to show she is trying to hide something x
"Don't fall for her lies this time, Jack, please x"
Ms Boulton said the reference to "lies" was about Wilband's deception over the paternity of Lexi.
The court has heard how Wilband had told Wheeler throughout her pregnancy that he was Lexi's biological father and had faked a paternity certificate.
Ms Boulton was asked why she sent that message to Wheeler and she replied: "Because Jack does doubt himself a lot and he's quite a gullible person and I just didn't want him to go along with something, if he hadn't done what had been done."
David Aubrey KC, representing Wilband, asked the witness what Wheeler had told her about Lexi's collapse.
Wheeler told police Lexi "suddenly stopped crying and went floppy in his arms" after he picked her up from a bouncer chair to give her a bottle.
Ms Boulton confirmed she could not remember Wheeler saying anything about what happened.
Mr Aubrey asked whether Lexi had started screaming and that Wheeler had picked her up out of the bouncer and had tried giving her a bottle, then a dummy, and had also cradled her in his arms before going floppy.
"You don't remember him mentioning anything of that at all, do you?" Mr Aubrey asked.
Ms Boulton replied: "I can't remember anything like that. I don't know that it wasn't said, I just can't remember.
"It was a long time ago."
A post-mortem examination gave Lexi's cause of death as bleeding to the brain, caused by a non-accidental traumatic event such as someone "shaking her violently".
Wilband, of Newent, and Wheeler, of Ledbury, Herefordshire, deny charges of manslaughter, and of causing or allowing Lexi's death.
The trial continues.