The mother of an eight-week-old baby girl threatened to throw her against the wall in frustration, a murder trial was told.
Holly Roe died in early hours of September 10 2018 after paramedics were called to a house in Crowborough, East Sussex following reports of a baby in cardiac arrest.
She was rushed to Pembury Hospital near Tunbridge Wells where medics battled to resuscitate her but she tragically died.
Mother Tiffany Tate, 21, was so overwhelmed with caring for the newborn baby she admitted she could do her harm, Lewes Crown Court heard.
Her partner Michael Roe, 32 allegedly heard Tate say: ‘Sometimes she frustrates me so much I could throw her up against the wall. I’ve had her ready in my hands to do it.’
A post-mortem examination later found Holly had suffered multiple ‘shaking’ injuries and died as a result of a traumatic head injury.
Parents Michael Roe and Tiffany Tate (both pictured), of Crowborough, East Sussex are on trial charged with murder and causing or allowing the death of a child
She was found to have a catalogue of historic injuries including 12 rib fractures both front and back, haemorrhages in the brain, spine and both eyes.
Some of the injuries were said to have been fresh while others may have happened up to several weeks earlier.
The court was told the prosecution case is that one of her parents murdered her and the other allowed it to happen.
Her parents Roe and Tate, of Crowborough, East Sussex are on trial charged with murder and causing or allowing the death of a child. Both deny all charges.
Sally Howes QC told the court Holly, who was born two months premature in July 2018, had to be resuscitated at birth and was kept in hospital for treatment.
She said the baby was discharged almost four weeks later when her condition was no longer a concern.
Roe and Tate are pictured with baby Holly before she died in September last year
However the court heard Tate had trouble bonding with her baby and the couple also had problems feeding the newborn baby as she would frequently vomit her feed through her nose and mouth.
The court was told Tate had lost patience with her daughter and her partner had been forced to take over the night feeds.
Miss Howes QC said when Tate was interviewed by police she said she once came home and found Holly ‘barking like a seal’;
Roe allegedly told her ‘I think her airways are closing’ and Holly then stopped breathing. Roe did mouth to mouth and Holly was then fine.
On one occasion Roe allegedly told Tate to hold Holly’s nose to make her open her mouth so that he could squirt the Infacol into her mouth.
When Roe was interviewed by police in he claimed Tate had struggled looking after the baby.
He told officers he once heard her in the living room saying: ‘Why won’t you take this? Why won’t you do this for me? Why won’t you take this f*****g bottle?’
Miss Howes said: ‘He heard Tiffany say ”Sometimes she frustrates me so much I could throw her up against the wall. I’ve had her ready in my hands to do it”.’
The court heard that on the day before she died Roe later said that during the day she was ‘a bit pale’ and ‘her eyes were rolling quite a lot – one was going one way, one was going the other’.
Both parents had already raised this as a concern with the health visitor who had reassured them this was caused by wind.
Overall, Michael Roe described Holly that Sunday as a ‘happy, gurgly baby’ and ‘happy, happy Holly being herself’.
That night he looked after the baby and he bottle fed her as normal as Tate went to bed to sleep.
She later told investigators: ‘As soon as I went to bed, my head hit the pillow, that was it, I was asleep’.
Roe wept in the dock as the court was told he later went to bed, placed Holly in her Moses basket and went to sleep himself.
The jury heard Roe was later to tell the police ‘Something startled me and I woke up’.
Pictured: Baby Holly was just eight-weeks-old when she died after being rushed to hospital
Miss Howes QC said: ‘He felt Holly’s head and it was cold. He then felt her chest which felt warm. He carried out a test for reflex – there was none.’
The court heard he woke Tate, gave Holly two rescue breaths to which she did not respond and then rang the emergency services for an ambulance.
Post mortem examinations found several historic brain bleeds, tears and bruising and traumatic injury to the spinal cord.
Lewes Crown Court heard subdural haemorrhages are a marker for traumatic brain injury and is consistent with violent movement of the head leading to a rupture of the blood vessels.
Pathologist Professor Safa Al-Sarraj, who examined Holly’s brain and spine found injuries from at least three different occasions from 48 hours before death to several weeks.
Miss Howes said: ‘It is the opinion of Professor Al-Sarraj that the pattern and extent of injuries in this case are those of non-accidental and abusive head trauma.’
Dr. Jo McPartland, a consultant paediatric pathologist, found bleeding in the eyes and optic nerves.
The trial, which is due to take up to six weeks, continues.