Express & Star

Murder-accused father shook Kayden Walker 'in a panic'

A father accused of murdering his baby son claimed he shook the infant in a panic after taking a break from housework and finding him unresponsive, a court has heard.

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Ricky Walker and Laura Davies

Ricky Walker told officers he believed a folded-up hoodie used to "prop-feed" six-month-old Kayden Walker may have covered his face and stopped him breathing.

A trial at Birmingham Crown Court has been told Kayden died after going into cardiac arrest at his home in Walnut Close, Bilston, in June 2016.

Prosecutors allege Walker, who denies murder, caused his son "catastrophic" head injuries, including bleeding to his brain, through forceful shaking.

During police interviews conducted a day after the death and in December 2016, Walker told police he had "never, ever" caused any physical harm to Kayden.

Transcripts of the interviews were read into the court record on Monday by prosecution counsel Jennifer Josephs and a police officer who was involved in questioning Walker.

The court was told Walker, aged 27, informed police that he had previously used blankets to support bottles of milk while "prop-feeding" Kayden, and had done since his son was two weeks old.

Jurors heard that Walker told two interviewing police officers: "I noticed my hoodie was over him, I tried waking him up, but nothing."

The defendant said he had put the hoodie on his son's chest to hold the bottle which he was feeding from.

In his account to police, he added: "I left the hoodie on him as I was washing up. As I sat down he had it over him."

Claiming to have shaken Kayden three or four times after noticing there was something wrong with him, Walker added: "I shook him, like panicked.

"Straight away I jumped on the phone for an ambulance.

"I didn't shake him really hard. It was just like to see if he would come round.

"I have not got a clue why he had got bruising."

Asked by police if there was any reason, that he could account for, as to why Kayden died, Walker replied: "I think through my hoodie."

Addressing a detective constable's suggestion that the hoodie may have stopped Kayden breathing, Walker added: "Yeah, because he was perfectly well and he can't just go like that."

Kayden's mother, Laura Davies, 25, is also standing trial.

She denies causing or allowing the death of a child, and a charge of child cruelty related to allegations of an earlier non-accidental injury.