Jury retires in trial of mother accused of killing baby
Baby Lexi, was four months old when she collapsed at her home in Newent, Gloucestershire, in April 2020.
A jury has retired to consider verdicts in the trial of a mother accused of fatally shaking her baby girl.
Melissa Wilband, 28, denies the manslaughter of Lexi Wilband, who was four months old when she collapsed at her home in Newent, Gloucestershire, in April 2020.
Tests revealed that Lexi suffered bleeding on her brain, likely caused by being violently shaken, both recently and on at least one earlier occasion, prosecutors say.
She died at Bristol Children's Hospital on April 18, six days after her collapse.
Wilband and her then partner Jack Wheeler, 31, deny causing or allowing the death of a child, and are on trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Wheeler had also been charged with Lexi's manslaughter but this was formally withdrawn last week after prosecutors offered no evidence against him.
Mr Justice Saini sent the jury to consider verdicts in the case on Tuesday morning.
During the trial, jurors were told that Wilband and Wheeler were in a relationship for about three years but Lexi was conceived with another man in early 2019.
However, Wilband told Wheeler, of Ledbury, Herefordshire, that he was the baby's biological father and presented him with a fake DNA certificate that claimed he was "100%" the "father" of her then-unborn child.
A genuine DNA test after Lexi's birth in November 2019 confirmed that Wheeler was not biologically related to her but he remained with Wilband and brought up Lexi as if she were his own child.
On April 12 2020, Wilband made a 111 call from the new-build council house where she lived with Wheeler and Lexi. She claimed Lexi had stopped breathing while in her bouncer chair.
Lexi was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and was intubated, with Wilband asked if she would like to hold her baby before the procedure took place. She declined to do so.
The infant was then transferred to Bristol Children's Hospital, where Wilband told medics that Wheeler had been carrying Lexi in her bouncer chair and was swinging it.
A decision was made to switch off Lexi's ventilator on April 17, following the results of an MRI scan.
Jurors were told that Wilband spent three hours with Lexi that evening before leaving to go to sleep in a different part of the hospital.
Prosecuting, Jane Osborne KC said Wilband was aware that her baby might die through the night but did not stay at her bedside.
"A staff nurse held Lexi's hand through the night and remained with her," Ms Osborne said.
"On the morning of April 18, Lexi seemed to have longer pauses in her breathing. Ms Wilband was told to attend the ward.
"She arrived just after Lexi had ceased to show any signs of life and had stopped breathing."
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", Ms Osborne said.
Further tests found the areas of bleeding in Lexi's eyes were "too numerous to count", she added.
Giving evidence, Wilband denied ever shaking Lexi and said she had a "bad wrist" that meant she was physically unable to shake her.
Wheeler said he had no idea why Lexi had collapsed and denied carrying her in the bouncer chair.
Wilband and Wheeler deny the charges against them and the trial continues.