Baby James Hughes died after suffering brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen, a murder trial jury has been told.

The prosecution say his mum Hannah Turtle from Deeside suffocated him three times over a 10-day period in 2016 and the last one proved fatal.

Dr Daniel Du Plessis, a consultant brain pathologist, told a Mold Crown Court jury there was no evidence of trauma to his skull.

James did not have lung disease or heart problems and there was no evidence of shaking or infection but his brain had been deprived of oxygen because his circulation had been shut down.

Dr Brian Rodgers, a Home Office pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination, said there was no evidence of any physical injuries such as shaking, bruising, or grip marks.

Where a hand or object was placed over a baby’s mouth, there were usually no injuries, Dr Rodgers said.

The cause of death from his perspective was unascertained.

Jury members have now started hearing details of the defendant’s police interviews, read by junior prosecuting barrister Ieuan Bennett and DC Angela Nicklin.

In her first interviews she denied she had done anything wrong.

Turtle said she had wanted to harm herself before James was born and she was on anti-depressants and had been scared, nervous and excited.

She had fallen downstairs numerous times while pregnant.

Asked about the first episode on May 31, 2016, she said James had a tantrum, started breathing strangely and turned blue in her arms.

On June 3 he turned blue in the pram and she scooped him up and ran to get help to the Nightingale House Hospice shop where her partner’s mother Kathleen Hughes worked.

On the third occasion she said she returned to the bedroom to find him white and not breathing.

The jury has heard how she allegedly smiled as she later told a social worker that she had killed her son.

Turtle said James had been sleeping and she had put her hand over his mouth for a few seconds and he had stopped breathing.

She said she had not done it before and had not been able to tell police because there were too many people there.

“It was either this or self-harming,” she said.

Turtle said she had heard the voice of a family member in her head – she did not know who – telling her she was a bad mother and that was why she had done it.

She said she did not intend to kill James or cause him serious harm.

Turtle, 22, denies murdering seven-week-old James in 2016 at the home she then shared with her partner Ian Hughes and his mother at Ryeland Street in Shotton.

She also denies three charges of ill-treatment and two of administering poison amid allegations that she gave him her own anti-depression medication in his milk.

She accepts she was responsible for suffocating James on three occasions.

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