iStockA father accused of murdering his baby son told doctors the child had suffered a “choking episode”.
Brian Penn was quizzed after Kaleb Penn was rushed to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, in November 2017.
Jurors heard how Kaleb, who was almost two months old at the time, had earlier been found to be unresponsive.
The evidence was heard as Penn went on trial on Wednesday at the High Court in Glasgow.
The 30-year-old has been accused of murdering his son at a house in Ayr, South Ayrshire, on November 1, 2017.
Prosecutors claim Penn did “repeatedly inflict blunt force trauma” on the child by “means unknown”.
It is also alleged he did compress and shake Kaleb.
The boy is said to have died at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow two days later.
Penn, of Mossblown, Ayrshire, faces a separate charge of earlier attempting to murder the baby at the same house between October 13 and 31, 2017.
He denies the accusations.
A nurse was the first witness in the trial.
The 64-year-old was working at Crosshouse when Kaleb arrived by ambulance.
The witness told how she had been tasked with looking after the baby’s parents.
Prosecutor Erin Campbell asked her: “While with them, were you present when they were spoken to by doctors?”
She replied: “Yes.”
Ms Campbell then asked: “Were they asked to give an account as to what happened to Kaleb?”
The nurse said it was Penn who spoke, adding: “It was that he had been feeding the baby and there had been a choking episode.
“He [Kaleb] had vomited, but that it was not vomit.”
The nurse said she heard the child’s dad give that account “quite a few times” to doctors.
Brian McConnachie QC, defending, later asked the witness: “Is it fair to say both parents were upset and tearful?”
She replied: “Yes.”
Mr McConnachie then asked: “From what you seen, there was nothing untoward in their reaction to the situation?”
The nurse responded: “No.”
A paediatric intensive care consultant at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow also gave evidence.
The 47-year-old claimed he examined Kaleb, who had dilated pupils, and that the soft part of his head “felt full.”
Prosecutor Erin Campbell asked what this meant.
He said: “There may be bleeding or swelling to the brain occurring.”
A CT scan on the baby revealed a significant brain injury, a skull fracture and bleed to the brain.
Miss Caldwell asked: “What was the likely outcome?”
The doctor replied: “He would die and if he survived it would be with a serious brain injury.”
He claimed he asked the parents for a medical history and they “gave the same history from the 999 call for a second time.”
The medic was referred to a statement he gave to police.
In it, the doctor stated: “I asked if he had any bumps on his head as I was trying to establish the cause of the bleed to the skull.
“At that point Brian told me three weeks ago Kaleb had fell on a changing mat but seemed fine.
“He said there was a lump on his head but he didn’t say exactly if they had sought medical help.”
Miss Caldwell asked if that would explain the level of injury on the CT scan, but the doctor replied: “No.”
Mr McConnachie asked if the skull fracture was recent or something old.”
The doctor replied: “I can’t age a skull fracture.”
The trial, before judge Lord Weir, continues.
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