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Mother's screams as baby found 'limp and lifeless'

A woman wept as she recalled finding her friend's baby 'limp and lifeless' only minutes after seeing her happy and healthy in a FaceTime call.

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Birmingham Crown Court

Rebecca Hunter carried out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions on four-month-old Hope Smith on the living room floor of the family's Walsall Wood home as the child's mother, Nicola Smith, screamed in anguish beside her, the court heard.

The two women had been out together, leaving Hope in the sole care of her father, 33-year-old Neil Smith, who is alleged to have shaken the infant or thrown her on a soft surface, like a sofa, causing the baby's fatal brain injuries.

He had been watching a televised football match and become frustrated that the baby had started crying, sending texts to his wife about Hope 'kicking off' because she was not there, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

Mrs Smith was sitting in her friend's garden when she made the video call to her husband. Ms Hunter described Hope as 'happy' and 'gurgling away' on her father's lap.

But minutes later, after moving on to the nearby Black Cock pub in Walsall Wood, Mrs Smith took a call from the defendant. "She was saying 'Get me a taxi, get me a taxi', saying there was something wrong with the baby. She was really frantic," said Ms Hunter.

A friend at the pub gave the women a lift to Mrs Smith's Salters Road home where she jumped over the garden wall and ran inside the house, taking Hope from her husband.

Asked how the baby seemed, Ms Hunter described Hope as 'limp and lifeless' and grey in colour.

She told the jury how she began life-saving attempts, having been trained in CPR. Smith took over the chest compressions until paramedics arrived while Nicola, who had tried to help, 'was on her knees screaming and crying'.

Hope was taken by ambulance to Walsall Manor Hospital where she was baptised because she was not expected to survive. In fact she was kept alive on a ventilator for the next three months before both parents agreed to have the machine turned off.

The witness described her friend as 'the perfect mother' and both parents as 'very loving to their children'. Earlier the jury heard that a work-related brain injury had left Smith with epilepsy and anger issues, making him intolerant of loud noises.

Ms Hunter said Hope had been wearing a floral Babygro in the video call that night – August 4, 2017 – but was wearing only a nappy when she and Mrs Smith arrived at the house.

Smith told police he had been 'rocking her gently' on his knee when he noticed Hope had become limp and was not breathing. But Ms Miranda Moore, QC, prosecuting said: "The sad fact is Mr Smith has not been truthful."

Smith, of Coleridge Close, Willenhall, denies murder. The case continues.

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