A MUM-OF-FIVE accused of shaking her six-week-old baby boy to death told a court how she went outside to smoke cannabis and returned to find the tot’s face was blue.
Chelsea Cuthbertson, 28, denies killing Malakai Watts at her home despite experts claiming his “catastrophic” head injuries and eight fractured ribs were most likely caused by a “non-accidental injury”.
Cops found the infant “grey from head to toe” when they arrived at the two-bed flat on February 2, 2019 following a desperate 999 call made by the mum, a jury was told.
The baby was rushed from her flat in Hythe, near Southampton, Hants, to Southampton General Hospital but tragically died four days later after he was taken off life support.
Cuthbertson told the murder trial at Winchester Crown Court how the twins had been asleep when she woke up that morning.
She said she still remembers “every minute” of the day – from going outside to smoke cannabis to coming back in to wake them for their morning feed and finding Malakai blue in the face
Chelsea told of the moment she got up and “glanced at the twins”, adding: “I didn't see their faces I just saw their bodies. They had two big blankets on them.
“I knew they were sleeping, they were quiet.
“I went to (their sister's) room, she was awake laying on her bed playing with her rabbit, her teddy.
“I got her up, took her to the lounge, turned the TV on, got her a drink, got the bottles out the fridge, put them on the kitchen side and then I made a joint.”
Chelsea claimed she went outside while she smoked the joint for about 15 minutes – but believed she would have heard the babies if they had cried.
However, she had told cops she had gone outside for a cigarette “because Dell [Malakai's father] told me if any professionals came to the house to say we don't smoke weed”.
When she returned she said she saw “straight away” that her son’s face was blue – and immediately called 999.
She was instructed how to give Malakai CPR over the phone by the call handler.
Cuthbertson added: "I was distraught. I have never seen a child blue before. I have never given CPR to anyone let alone a baby.
"That whole day was just crazy, that morning when I had to do the CPR. It felt like a lifetime."
She previously told the court she would smoke cannabis every day because 'it chills me out'.
Chelsea had admitted to the court that the drug “mongs you out” but continued to smoke every day because “it chills me out”.
She denies murder.
The trial continues.
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