A financial consultant accused of murdering her four-week-old daughter sent photos of her breast-feeding to the father to ‘guilt trip him to come home,’ a court heard.
City worker Clare Sanders, 43, and Lithuanian lover Tomas Vaitkevicius, 45, allegedly shook little Eva on three separate occasions during the first weeks of her young life.
Sanders’ mobile phone had been used to search ‘shaken baby syndrome NHS’, ‘Shaking babies’ and ‘baby is shaking’ on 27 August 2017 – six days before Eva’s death, it was said.
Clare Sanders pictured at the Old Bailey last month. Sanders’ mobile phone had been used to search ‘shaken baby syndrome NHS’, ‘Shaking babies’ and ‘baby is shaking’ on 27 August 2017 – six days before Eva’s death, it was said
Tomas Vaitkevicius, 45. The pair had allegedly finished ‘a bottle of liqueur thing’ between them on the night the baby was found lifeless in their apartment in Mitcham, south London
The pair had allegedly finished ‘a bottle of liqueur thing’ between them on the night the baby was found lifeless in their apartment in Mitcham, south London.
Eva was rushed to St George’s Hospital after concerned neighbour Karen Brewell called the London Ambulance Service when she heard Sanders screaming: ‘My baby,’, the court heard.
Despite the best efforts of paramedics she was pronounced dead shortly before 7am and post-mortem later gave the cause of death as ‘traumatic brain and spinal cord injury’.
Sanders refused to hand over her phone to police, claiming that she was going through a divorce and needed to access files on the device, the court heard.
Financial consultant Clare Sanders (left and right) sent photos of her breast-feeding to the father to ‘guilt trip him to come home,’ a court heard
Tomas Vaitkevicius. Vaitkevicius left Sanders alone with little Eva prompting her to send ‘manipulative’ messages to him, the Old Bailey heard
She told officers she was also worried that messages between her and Vaitkevicius would reveal her ‘manipulation’ of him, DC Susie Campbell said.
Giving evidence DC Campbell told jurors that the mother had said the couple had a ‘troubled’ relationship and frequently argued about child care.
Vaitkevicius left Sanders alone with little Eva prompting her to send ‘manipulative’ messages to him, the Old Bailey heard.
‘You don’t have to like me but why would you leave Eva?’ one text from Sanders read.
The mother would send pictures of the baby girl lying on her chest while breast-feeding to ‘guilt trip’ the father, the court heard.
‘She explained they had quite a troubled start to their relationship, she had been going through divorce at the time.
‘She had fallen pregnant unexpectedly having previously thought she was unable to get pregnant and she said they had argued quite a lot and she was worried about what we could see of that on the telephone,’ the witness said.
‘She said there were occasions were she was being manipulative,’ DC Campbell added.
Clare Sanders. ‘You don’t have to like me but why would you leave Eva?’ one text from Sanders read
‘The focus of the arguments was Thomas often leaving her alone with Eva?’ asked Bernard Richmond, defending Vaitkevicius.
‘Yes that’s right,’ DC Campbell replied.
Cross-examining, Sally O’Neill, QC, for Sanders, said: ‘One particular message said words to the effect of: ‘you don’t have to like me but why would you leave Eva’.
‘She said the examples of manipulation was sending him pictures of Eva on her breast trying to breastfeed her and she said she was doing that to try and guilt trip him to come home and in fact it did work because he did come home after she sent those pictures.’
‘Yes,’ DC Campbell replied.
Sanders’ mother accused police of trying to ‘incriminate’ the City worker and encouraged her daughter not to hand over her phone, the court heard.
The pair were approached by officers while at hospital and Sanders became distressed when they asked to examine her phone, it was said.
‘Her mother was there and was against it. Her mother suggested we were trying to incriminate her,’ DC Campbell said.
Sanders and Lithuanian-born Vaitkevicius, from Mitcham, both deny murder and an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable child.
The trial continues.