Murder-accused dad says he never hurt baby boy
BBCA father accused of murdering his three-month-old son has told jurors he "never" hurt the baby boy.
Bradley Thomas, 23, is alleged to have violently shaken Emmerson Oak Thomas in October last year, causing a "catastrophic" brain injury.
Thomas, a window cleaner from Redcar, denied murder and told Teesside Crown Court his son fell from his lap when Thomas fell asleep while feeding him.
Under questioning by his barrister, Nicholas Lumley KC, Thomas said he was "over the moon" when Emmerson was born and did all he could for his son, including changing his nappies, feeding him and playing with him.
"Have you ever deliberately harmed Emmerson?" Lumley asked.
"No," Thomas replied.
When asked if he had "ever gripped and shaken" the baby "so hard as to kill him", Thomas replied: "No, never."
He said he felt "very confident" when he was handling his son and never had any accidents with him.
The court heard Emmerson had a "little bleed on the brain" a week or two before he was fatally injured.
"Did you hurt him?" Lumley asked.
"No," Thomas replied, adding he had not noticed any change in his son who was always "very sleepy".
The court previously heard Thomas was the only person with Emmerson when the baby was injured on the morning of 5 October 2025.
The child died three days later in hospital with the cause of death being a "traumatic head injury" inflicted by "excessive and vigorous forceful shaking", jurors heard.
'Traumatised and hysterical'
Thomas said he had got up to feed his crying son in the early hours of 5 October and fell asleep on the sofa with the baby lying on his knees.
He said he woke at about 05:00 to see his son lying on the living room floor, red in the face and making "strange noises".
He said he put his son on the changing mat and waited for him to recover, but the baby made more "weird noises", including gasps for air, before turning pale grey in the face and blue in the lips.
Thomas said he splashed cold water on his son and called 999, then followed first aid advice given to him by the call operator.
Lumley asked Thomas why he did not tell paramedics or police at the scene his son had fallen from his lap.
He said he was "traumatised" and "hysterical" and "not thinking at all".
When asked about drug use, Thomas said he smoked a cannabis joint every night to help him get to sleep, with the drug making him "drowsy and pretty much chill" but never aggressive.
In cross-examination, prosecutor Toby Hedworth KC said Thomas' account of a small fall on to a carpeted floor "simply could not have caused these injuries".
He said experts concluded the force required to cause Emmerson's "catastrophic" injuries would have needed him to have "fallen from something like a third-storey window on to concrete".
Thomas said doctors had said the injuries were possible in a "freak accident".
The trial continues.
