Mum was "hysterical" as medics tended baby J - court told

PARAMEDICS told how the mother accused of killing her baby was "hysterical" when they arrived to her home.

Nicholas Pritchett said when he arrived at a flat in Falcon Avenue, Grays, on February 13 2006 he found Gareth Cox trying to resuscitate his three-month-old baby Jack on a sofa while Joanne Mallinder remained nearby in a distressed state.

Mr Pritchett, an emergency care practitioner with the Essex Ambulance Service, said: "She was hysterical. She was crying and screaming and continuously asking was he breathing, is he going to be alright?"

Mr Pritchett said Jack, who had suffered severe brain damage and died 13-months later, wasn't breathing and had no pulse.

He also had blood around his mouth and nose and his lips and mouth had turned blue.

Mr Pritchett said when the ambulance arrived Mallinder and Mr Cox sat in the back with their son and as they rushed to Basildon Hospital he and his colleague continued to work on Jack and injected Adrenalin through his shin bone to open up his arteries and improve the blood flow to his organs.

Mr Pritchett said he later discovered Jack had suffered six fractures to his arms and leg but the only injury that could possibly have been caused by the paramedics was the fracture around the area where the needle was injected.

He said: "You could split a bone if the child had brittle bones.

"The only other place where I would expect to find a fracture was his ribs when performing CPR."

Paramedic Lester Burdiss also gave evidence and said when he arrived at the house after Mr Pritchett, Mallinder, 37, was "crouched down holding her head." and was saying: "I cannot cope with this."

He accepted on cross examination by Kelly O'Neill QC, defence counsel for Mallinder, that the defendant couldn't bear to see her son lying unconscious and she was so upset at seeing Jack being treated in the back of the ambulance she vomited and even tried to get out.

Mallinder, of Leicester Road, Tilbury, denies murder on March 20 last year.