The company, Fairytales Day Nursery, accepted it had failed to ensure it trained and supervised staff adequately, which should be taken into account, says Rashad Mohammed.

It was clear that nursery owner Deborah Latewood had "contributed to the death of Noah", he adds.

He says there were also pressures in the nursery to complete paperwork, with management angered if these were not carried out, which all contributed to the toxic environment.

The failures were not just of Cookson, but of other staff, Rashad Mohammed tells the court.

The nursery at times was a "toxic place," he says.

It seemed on occasions staff would be in tears, the court hears.

In her interview with police, Cookson told officers she had not received specific training regarding sleep practices and had "learned on the job".

"There can be very little doubt that this lack of training contributed to the death of Noah," Mohammed adds.

He says Cookson did not purchase the "sleep pod" that Noah was in when he died.

One of the factors which may have contributed to Noah's death was the placing of a blanket on his head, Mohammed adds, and that this was not done by Cookson with malice - but to try and help him to sleep.

Nursery staff would do this to cover against light coming through the windows, he tells the court, and they had asked for darker curtains but this request was declined while Cookson said senior staff were happy for blankets to be put over children's heads.

Rashad Mohammed says Kimberley Cookson "had the good sense to own up to her actions".

"She immediately accepted responsibility for what she had done," he says, and, he adds, she did not seek to have a trial which would have affected the family.

Cookson was 20 at the time of Noah's death, is now 23 and began working at the nursery as an apprentice at 16.

Mohammed says there were failures in the nursery at a higher level, practices that were unsuitable and "quite simply dangerous".

"I cannot imaging the pain the family is going through," Kimberley Cookson says in her statement, which is being put to the court.

"I only hope that one day they hold it in their hearts to forgive me," she adds. "I never set out to harm anyone.

"What happened will haunt me for the rest of my life.I used to describe myself as outgoing, but since that horrible day I've lost who I am.

"I should have done better."

Image source, West Midlands Police

In mitigation, Kimberley Cookson's representative Rashad Mohammed says: "Nothing I say on behalf of Kimberley Cookson is designed to undermine the seriousness of the offence and the life of Noah.

"Kimberley knows there is nothing she can do or say that will come close to providing any comfort for Noah's family and friends."

She "bitterly regrets" what happened and wishes she could "turn back the clock", he adds.

Judge Justice Choudhury is back in court and this afternoon's session has started at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

We have been hearing too from The Lullaby Trust, which exists to keep babies safe and supports bereaved families and they have been working with the Department of Education to bring about stricter regulations around safe sleeping.

"Unfortunately it's not the first case we've come across," said chief executive Jenny Ward.

"We need to make sure that everybody is asking the questions about how babies are sleeping, that they know the safe sleep advice, that staff are trained and that babies are put to sleep safely".

The charity launched their Campaign for Gigi in memory of nine-month-old Genevieve Meehan who was died after being tightly swaddled and strapped face down on to a bean bag.

"We know that the regulations around safe sleep aren't as strong as we'd like them to be. We want Ofsted to have more powers to be able to go in and check them," chief executive Jenny Ward added.

Unsafe practices were widespread at the nursery and existed before Cookson started working there in 2022, prosecutor John Elvidge told the court.

Owner Deborah Latewood had neglected her health and safety duties by failing to make sure staff and children were adequately supervised.

What happened to Noah happened "in plain sight" of Latewood and others, given what was seen from CCTV recordings, he added this morning.

While the court is not sitting at the moment, we can bring you some more from this morning's hearing.

The victim impact statement for Noah's father, Thulani Sibanda, was also read out.

He said: "No form of justice that could ever balance what's been taken from us. My mental health has been profoundly affected, I think about him every single day.

"I imagine the life he should’ve had, the milestones he should've reached, the person he should’ve grown into."

He said that his son's death affected his sleep, concentration and his ability to feel safe.

"Noah's absence is felt in every corner of our lives," he said. "We will never see him grow, never hear his voice change, never see him start school.

"These are losses that continue for a lifetime."

"Noah deserved to live, he deserved to be protected and we deserved to watch him grow up."

Vanessa Pearce
BBC News

A nursery, its boss and a staff member are being sentenced today over the death of 14-month-old Noah Sibanda.

Across this morning's part of the hearing, we heard some harrowing details:

• Nursery worker Kimberley Cookson swaddled Noah in a three-season sleeping bag, covering his head with a blanket and leaving him unchecked in a teepee, where he died
• In forcing Noah to sleep, Cookson put her knee on him for seven minutes to stop him moving
• Other children were given similar treatment by Cookson which the prosecutor described as "normal practice" at the nursery
• Noah's family watched video in the court of the 14-month-old lying unchecked for two hours
• In her victim impact statement, his mother, Masi Sibanda, says she will never forgive herself for handing her son over to "people who killed him"
• Nursery owner Deborah Latewood had neglected her health and safety duties, the prosecutor said

The court has broken for lunch with the judge adjourning this sentencing hearing until 14:00.

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

Several members of the Sibanda family are in tears as Masi SIbanda's victim impact statement is read out.

Nursery owner Deborah Latewood has her head bowed and looks upset as the statement is read out.

Noah's mum describes worker Kimberley Cookson's actions as treating Noah "as if he was a felon, a danger, as if he were in prison" and adds "we have all now been robbed of what Noah could have brought into our lives".

Masi Sibanda says there was "no sentence that Kimberley could receive that would amount to the pain and suffering we have been put through".

She says she had wondered whether the way Noah was treated by Cookson was because of their skin colour, or her having something against Noah or the family.

"Behind closed doors, they were playing Russian Roulette with our children," she said.

"Last time I saw and held my child was in hospital, shortly after I was told nothing more could be done.

"He wouldn’t open his eyes when I whispered to him that it was time to go home."

She says she watched Noah's father rock him and said "I'm so sorry little one".

A victim impact statement from Noah's mum Masi Sibanda has been read to the court.

Her son, as a baby, was "beautiful to behold," she says and added that, as a first-time mother, "he made things so easy for me".

"If he could talk, he would have told me everything would be OK," she says.

Noah was a confident child, "always kind and full of patience and gentleness".

His mother says she had a "naive trust in the nursery" and "I will forever feel guilty".

"Since his death, there has not been a single day I haven't regretted being alive when he is not," she adds. "My guilt comes from knowing I handed him over to people who killed him."

The "excessive" force used on him was like that used in prisons, she said, adding he was treated as a felon, a danger, as if he was in jail.

"I can't forgive myself and cannot forgive [the] defendants," she says.

The 14-month-old had suffered so much at the hands of Cookson, she adds, who had failed to keep him alive and safe.

"Guilt lives with me every time I look at my daughter," she adds.

"Why did [Cookson] hate our son so much... from what I've seen she simply does not care, she treated him worse than an animal.

"They are the reason he died... my child died alone, scared and in pain."

Cookson's negligence was gross, that is exceptionally bad, prosecutor John Elvidge tells the court.

"This was not an isolated incident involving her, even on that day," he adds.

"On the 9th of December she was supposed to be caring for Noah, but her attitude was not caring at all."

No action was taken to stop Cookson when she was restraining Noah, the court hears, meaning the practices must have been "normal".

Forcing babies to sleep when they were not ready and rough handling were also normal at the nursery, the prosecutor says.

Staff and management failed to follow guidelines on sleep and their behaviour fell "very far below accepted standard of care".

It was a failure of management, with staff forcing children to sleep falling below the standard of care expected of a nursery, the prosecutor adds.

Soft bedding around the child's head would have been "highly hazardous", the court hears.

Placing a leg on a child was extremely dangerous and Noah was trapped under several layers of blankets, meaning he would have been unable to wriggle out.

The sleeping environment in the nursery was "exceptionally dangerous", the prosecutor tells the court.

"[Noah] would have become exhausted and overheated, as well as struggling to breathe," he adds.

A specialist adds that "any young child placed to sleep in these circumstances would be likely to die".

The court hears that the blue sleeping bag was called a season-three "sleeping pod" and measured 130cm by 65cm (51 by 26 inches).

"A three-season sleeping bag is designed for camping outdoors in cooler weather, and would be too hot indoors during the day time," the prosecutor says.

John Elvidge adds that the length of the bag would be "very long" for an infant and the Lullaby Trust charity did not recommend sleeping pods for infants.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Kimberley Cookson told police she had learnt how to wrap and swaddle babies on the job.

She added that Noah usually fell asleep instantly, liked to be wrapped and she had no formal training in how to put children down to sleep.

Paperwork to track sleeping arrangements was scrapped before Noah's death to save on waste, the court heard.

Cookson said she was not told that putting a child on their back was safer and was not aware that there was a sleep policy at the nursery.

She thought it was "fine" to cover children's faces as long as airflow was not restricted.

Cookson said she "could not explain" why she behaved so harshly towards Noah that day and did not know why she had not checked on him, adding there was "no excuse".

Prosecutor John Elvidge said that in her third interview with police, Cookson answered "no comment" to many questions.

The police investigation reviewed more CCTV footage from the nursery, from 29 and 30 November and 5, 6, 7 and 8 December.

The prosecutor says investigators saw "illustrations of similar conduct on each of those days, that we have seen on the 9th of December - swaddling children, placing them face down, restrained."

The court hears that there was a failure to adopt safe sleeping practices and that failure was "systemic."