A man accused of murdering a three-year-old Wolverhampton boy appeared to have been drinking on the night the child was rushed to hospital with a head injury that proved fatal, a jury heard.

Christopher Taylor, now aged 25, was alone at the flat in Slim Avenue, Bradley, when police arrived after an ambulance had left the scene with Ryan Lovell-Hancox, Wolverhampton Crown court was told.

Pc David Thompson said: “Beer cans and an empty spirit bottle were strewn around the floor of the bedsit.

“I could smell alcohol on the breath of Taylor. I asked him what he had had to drink and he informed me that he had had a couple of cans. He did not specify of what.

“He appeared to be upset and concerned. He asked me on several occasions whether I knew what had happened to Ryan.”

Taylor’s girlfriend Kayley Boleyn, now 19, had travelled in the ambulance to New Cross Hospital with Ryan, who was being looked after by the couple at the bedsit for around three weeks before the incident on December 22, 2008.

Taylor told Pc Thompson in a signed statement: “I was bathing him when he stood up in the bath. He slipped and banged his head. I sat him up. He was unconscious. I let the bath out, put some water on his head to wake him up but he did not.

“I took him in my arms and placed him on the bed.” Boleyn gave a similar account when questioned by another police officer the same evening, the court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Mr Christopher Hotten QC has told the jury that both she and Taylor changed this version of events and started blaming each other for Ryan’s injuries after doctors dismissed their initial explanation.

Both were arrested on suspicion of assault within hours of Ryan being taken to hospital.

The child was suffering from a serious head injury that caused a brain haemorrhage and led to his death from a cardiac arrest almost 40 hours after his admission to New Cross and subsequent transfer to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, said pathologist Dr Stephen Wills.”

Mr John Cooper QC, defending Taylor, said despite the drinking claim, there were no beer cans visible on pictures of the bedsit taken shortly after the injured child had been removed from the premises.

Boleyn and Taylor both deny murder and child cruelty. He also pleads not guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child while she admits allowing the death.

Earlier the jury was told by a pathologist how Ryan was killed by up to 10 blows to the head.

Home Office pathologist Dr Stephen Wills said the blows caused a brain haemorrhage that led to a cardiac arrest.

He said: “I favour the explanation that they were caused by a relatively forceful impact with a surface such as a carpeted floor or wall.”

The trial continues on Monday.