Murder trial mother did not appear caring, court told

A mother accused of suffocating three of her babies did not appear particularly caring, a court was told yesterday.

Helen Johnson, a community paediatric nurse, visited Trupti Patel, 35, in 1999 as part of a scheme to help mothers whose babies had become victims of cot death. By this time, Mrs Patel had given birth to another boy, Jamie, two years after her first son, Amar, had died.

Mrs Johnson told Paul Dunkels QC, for the prosecution, that she had been concerned that baby Jamie was too hot under the duvet.

"Trupti was in bed and Jamie was next to her in the bed with the duvet pulled over him as well," she said.

Mrs Johnson said she had suggested to Mrs Patel that her son may have been too hot, especially because he had a rash on his face caused by infected milk spots. But, she told Mr Dunkels, her advice was ignored. "She didn't respond at all to my request. I asked her again to pull the duvet back, but again – no response."

Mrs Johnson said she did not intervene but was concerned about the child.

"One of the reasons that children can become victims of cot death is they overheat, so being under an adult's duvet I thought is too much for them."

Mr Dunkels asked how she thought Mrs Patel had seemed throughout the visit.

"My impression was that Mrs Patel was very flat, flat as in not unresponsive but she didn't seem particularly demonstrative towards Jamie," Mrs Johnson said. "During the visit she didn't touch him. He was next to her and she looked at him but she didn't make contact with him."

Asked if she thought this was unusual in a mother who had lost her baby to cot death, Mrs Johnson said: "She was not displaying a level of anxiety that I have seen on previous visits. I've done a lot of home visits and other parents are very anxious and it's the level of anxiety that I hadn't witnessed in Mrs Patel."

Under cross-examination by the defence barrister, Kieran Coonan, Mrs Johnson raised further concerns about Mrs Patel's behaviour.

She said: "I would expect some contact between the mother and child. In my previous experience, mothers have at least touched their babies, stroked their face, some contact even if they are asleep."

Asked by Mr Coonan why she had written up her notes from the visit in the privacy of her car, Mrs Johnson said it was not normal but said she had felt uncomfortable and bothered by the visit.

When Jamie died on 6 July 1999 aged just 15 days, the pathologist said the death was a "very unusual event".

But it was not until the death of Mrs Patel's daughter, Mia, on 5 June 2002, 22 days after she was born, that police launched an investigation.

Ms Patel is charged with murdering her two sons and daughter by either squeezing their chests or smothering their faces so they could not breathe and they suffocated. She denies the charges.