Father was not violent, mother tells murder trial
A mother whose baby was allegedly killed by her ex-partner has denied the murder-accused was a violent man.
Laura Davies told jurors she had 'no reason to suspect' Ricky Walker was a potential risk to their six-month-old son Kayden.
The 25-year-old fought back tears as she claimed Walker had 'ruined' the 'best thing that had happened' to her when he allegedly killed their baby.
Mr David Mason QC, prosecuting, put it to Davies: "You knew Ricky had a temper with Kayden and you did nothing."
She replied: "He wasn't a violent person. He was a good dad."
Prosecutors allege 27-year-old Walker deliberately harmed Kayden at their Black Country home, leaving him with brain, eye and spinal injuries on June 12, 2016.
Davies was out of the family’s council flat in Moxley’s Walnut Close – on the border of Darlaston and Bilston – when her son collapsed.
But Mr Mason claimed the mother should have been aware there was a risk to her son and failed to take reasonable steps to protect him.
During cross-examination on Friday, the prosecutor said: "I suggest that if you really cared for Kayden, you would have done more to protect him from Ricky Walker."
Davies, of Walnut Close, Moxley, replied: "I had nothing to open my eyes up [to tell me] that he was a risk around his child.
"I had no suspicions he would harm his family the way he did because he did more than me."
Walker denies murdering his son, instead claiming a hoody covering the baby caused him to stop breathing and go into cardiac arrest.
Medics believe Kayden was forcibly shaken and suffered a 'non-accidental' impact to the head before he died.
The baby suffered ‘similar’ trauma to his head several weeks before he died and there was a bruise on his back caused by ‘forceful clasping of hands’ around his chest, jurors were told.
But Davies denied knowing her son had been injured weeks before, instead claiming she believed another child hitting Kayden with a rattle was to blame.
Standing in the witness box, Davies added: "If I knew about the first bang to his head, he would still be here. Ricky would have been long gone.
"I believed the story with the hoody, like everybody else. Every time I asked him [what happened], he said 'I don't want to tell you'.
"I believed him up until I had in black and white the reason why my son had passed and I knew it was him."
Both defendants deny causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a child between December 16, 2015, and June 12, 2016.
Walker, of Kendrick Road, Moxley, also denies murder.
The trial continues.
