Mum 'screamed and ran' after seeing baby 'floppy'

This story contains details which readers may find distressing.

A mother "screamed and ran out of the house" after seeing her four-week-old son looking floppy on his father's knee, a court has heard.

Tony Bartlett, 39, is accused of shaking his son Atticus to death while the baby's mother Evelyn Ballentyne changed upstairs following the couple's first night out together since his birth.

"I stared at Atticus for a couple of seconds and you could just tell that he had gone grey. He was dead," Ballentyne told Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday.

Atticus died in hospital from brain injuries after the incident at the couple's Somerset home in July 2022. Bartlett, of Axminster in Devon, denies charges of manslaughter and murder.

Giving evidence, Ballentyne said she came downstairs on 16 July 2022 and heard Atticus making "two gasping noises".

"If you have ever watched someone pass away, towards the end of their life, they make funny noises and that's what he did," she said.

Ballentyne said Atticus had been lying face down on his father's knees and Bartlett "flipped" him over.

"Atticus's head just flopped back, he wasn't alive," she told the court while weeping.

"I just screamed and ran out of the house," Ballentyne said. "I thought I rang 999 but I didn't."

The court heard Ballentyne previously gave accounts she had picked Atticus up and gently shaken him to revive him.

However, she told the jury this was not the case.

"My memory is very clear now of that night," she added.

Representing Bartlett, Nigel Power KC suggested Ballentyne had sought to "minimise" her actions – which she denied.

He asked her: "Tony didn't do anything to harm Atticus, did he?"

"Yes he did," Ballentyne replied.

Atticus had been cared for by his grandmother and her husband earlier in the evening, while Bartlett and Ballentyne went to a pub and comedy club.

Jurors previously heard Bartlett had consumed up to nine pints of beer and was left to feed Atticus while his partner went upstairs to change.

Prosecutor Charles Row KC said Bartlett violently shook Atticus so hard he caused severe internal injuries to his brain and spinal cord.

Several of Atticus's ribs were also cracked, the jury was told.

Atticus died in hospital on 23 July 2022. The trial continues.

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