Baby murder trial – mum Chelsea Cuthbertson smoked cannabis before finding six-week-old had turned blue
A HYTHE mum told a jury she smoked a joint for 15 minutes outside her flat before returning inside and finding her tiny six-week old baby had turned blue.
Chelsea Cuthbertson (28), is standing trial at Winchester Crown Court having denied a charge of murdering Malakai Watts.
The prosecution claims Malakai suffered “traumatic brain injuries” likely caused by Cuthbertson shaking him.
However, in court she denied having ever harmed, or intended to harm, Malakai and said she had never shaken him or lied about that to police and doctors.
The court has heard she called 999 on the morning of 2nd February 2019, and her defence is she found Malakai unresponsive in his cot.
“When I walked in I just saw Malakai’s face was blue,” Cuthbertson told the jury yesterday (Tuesday).
She continued: “I was distraught. I have never seen a child blue before, never given CPR to anyone, let alone a baby.”
Defence barrister Joanne Martin QC outlined to the court how what happened after 9am on 2nd February 2019 was “important” in the case.
Cuthbertson’s partner, Malakai’s father Del Watts, had already left for work that morning, and Cuthbertson said she got up just before 9am.
She assumed Malakai and his twin were asleep in their cot, she said, and Cuthbertson explained she got up her other child who went into the lounge.
After checking her banking app and Facebook, she exchanged texts with Mr Watts who told her he had switched on the heating in the living room because the house had felt cold.
Cuthbertson said the heating in two rooms was already on, and chastised him for treating the house “like a hotel”, before she then rolled a joint and went outside the front of the flat to smoke it.
Asked how long she thought she was smoking the joint, she said “15 minutes”.
She also admitted to the court she had told police she smoked a cigarette and not a joint, since Mr Watts had told her not to tell “any professionals” who entered the home that the pair of them were cannabis users.
It was when she returned she found Malakai in a bad way, and she called 999. She was advised on how to give him CPR over the phone, although the court has heard there was some “confusion”, and paramedics took over when they arrived.
The court has heard how Malakai was rushed to Southampton General Hospital and treated in its Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in what was effectively an induced coma but medics struggled to control seizures he was having.
A CT scan indicated bleeds on his brain and damage to his brain stem, and medics decided by 6th February he should be given palliative care and his life support switched off. He died at 1.48pm.
Subsequent investigations found Malakai’s cause of death to be "non-accidental" and pathological findings assessed "very traumatic head injuries", the prosecution has said.
The court heard Cuthbertson was arrested while Malakai was in hospital and questioned a number of times by police.
She told the court that at this time she was "off her head” and could not believe what was happening.
After police finished questioning her and Mr Watts, he moved out of her flat and Cuthbertson admitted “there was a lot of alcohol and drugs” in the time after that, and that she took an overdose as she struggled to deal with Malakai’s death.
The jury was also taken through the week before Malakai was found unresponsive, with Cutherbertson asked a series of questions about messages she and Mr Watts had exchanged, and the state of their relationship.
That included texts in which she lambasted him for being absent and his lack of involvement with the children. She also told him to “get out” and that she was “kicking him out” on various occasions.
However, she told the court that was “just how the relationship was”, and they would argue often and say things they did not really mean.
They also argued over the heating at the house – paid for by topping up a meter – but she said she did not have worries over money as she could borrow money from friends, to whom she also loaned funds.
She admitted she used cannabis and cocaine, although she said she stopped taking the class A drug after the twins were born as she did not want to use around them.
Mr Watts was also a cocaine user, she said, and she suspected he had been snorting cocaine on the night of 1st February.
Texts also showed Cuthbertson had complained that she was “always stuck in” since Mr Watts was largely absent, and in one she said she was “going mental”.
However, in court she denied she was struggling, adding Malakai, who was born prematurely, could be “whingey” but things were “okay” overall although Mr Watts “wasn’t putting any effort in”.
The trial continues.
