Stepfather accused of murdering baby tells court he ‘loves children’

Craig Crouch told jurors he was ‘honoured’ to be named as the father on his stepson Jacob Crouch’s birth certificate.

Jacob Crouch’s mother Gemma Barton and stepfather Craig Crouch both deny murder (Elizabeth Cook/PA) (PA Wire)

A man accused of murdering his stepson told a court that he “loves children” as he gave evidence for the first time.

Craig Crouch said he was “honoured” to be named as the father on the birth certificate of Jacob Crouch, who he is accused of killing in collusion with the 10-month-old’s mother Gemma Barton.

Prosecutors allege that the pair worked together to abuse and murder Jacob, who had several bruises, fractured ribs and internal injuries at the time of his death on December 30 2020.

Standing in the witness box at Derby Crown Court on Thursday in a blue shirt, jeans and boots, Crouch said he supported Jacob “from the start”.

He was asked by his defence lawyer Balraj Bhatia KC: “Although you were not the biological father, from the moment (Jacob) was born, how did you feel about him?”

“He was mine,” Crouch replied.

Mr Bhatia later asked: “How did you feel about becoming a father?”

Crouch said: “I love children. I have always been around children.”

Mr Bhatia asked: “Were you responsible for the name that was put on his birth certificate?”

“No”, Crouch replied.

Mr Bhatia asked: “Who’s idea was that?”

“Gemma’s”, Crouch replied.

Mr Bhatia asked: “Had you had any advance notice that that was going to happen?”

Crouch said: “Yes I had.”

When asked how it made him feel, Crouch said: “It blew me away to begin with. I was very, very shocked.

“I was honoured. I was very emotional at the time, I asked Gemma ‘are you sure?’ But Gemma said she could not have asked for somebody better, so I agreed.”

Mr Bhatia asked: “How seriously did you take your obligations as a father?”

Crouch replied: “I was there for him from the start.”

Crouch said he would “regularly” cuddle with Jacob and Barton at their home near Swadlincote, Derbyshire, help with feeds and bathing and “was one for taking selfies” with his stepson.

The 39-year-old met 33-year-old Barton on a dating site when she was four months pregnant with Jacob in September 2019 and admitted he thought she was “out of his league” at the time they began speaking.

When asked how it made him feel that Barton was pregnant with someone else’s child, Crouch replied that he took no issue with this and said “children are not a hindrance”.

The court had previously heard that Crouch had told several lies about his position at JCB, where he worked as a forklift operator, to impress his future partner.

They included saying that he had thousands of men under his direction, that he had access to the company helicopter, was due to meet the then-prime minister Boris Johnson and that he earned upwards of £70,000 a year – more than double his actual salary.

Mr Bhatia asked: “On a scale of zero being little fibs, and 10 being absolute whoppers, where do you think your lying was?”

Crouch replied: “Whoppers. They were silly.

“It was just for an excuse to impress.”

Crouch also denied the prosecution’s assertion that he swaddled Jacob with a dressing gown cord, restricting his movement as he slept.

He was giving evidence after the Crown formally closed its case, with the jury shown four videos of Jacob at different stages in his life.

They included one which showed Crouch dunking Jacob into a paddling pool while he was crying in May 2020, when he was three-months-old, and another of him in a high chair in the final week of his life with a visible bruise on his right cheek.

When asked about the paddling pool video by Mr Bhatia, Crouch admitted that the footage “does not look great” but said it was a controlled activity done in front of several family members to get Jacob used to the water.

Prosecutors have previously told the jury that Jacob was the subject of regular abuse and a “culture of cruelty” which ultimately led to him dying “in his cot, alone” at his home in Foxley Chase, Linton.

Prosecutor Mary Prior KC previously said that Crouch and Barton colluded to create “an environment in which they encouraged and applauded each other in their control and punishments of this little baby”.

The jury has previously seen texts between the pair showing them at one point referring to Jacob as the “devil”, and discussing feeding him his own vomit, bathing him in bleach and sending him to bed or smacking him for “crying for no reason”.

Giving evidence, forensic pathologist Dr Michael Biggs said blunt force trauma was “the only plausible explanation” for Jacob’s death, which he concluded was from peritonitis – an infection of the lining of the abdominal organs – caused by a traumatic bowel perforation.

Dr Sarah Dixon, a consultant paediatrician, told the court that she believed Jacob was the victim of “repeated physical abuse” which caused the 19 visible bruises and 39 rib fractures found at the time the baby died.

Barton, of Ray Street, Heanor, Derbyshire, and Crouch, of Donisthorpe Lane, Moira, Swadlincote, both deny murder, causing or allowing the death of a child, causing a child to suffer serious physical harm and three counts of child cruelty.

The trial continues.