Baby's injuries similar to those in road accident, trial hears

A baby allegedly murdered by his dad had injuries similar to those in a road traffic accident, a court has heard.

Seven-week-old Kaleb Penn was found to have had a skull fracture, a bleed to the brain and a serious brain injury.

His dad, 30-year-old Brian Penn, is alleged to have murdered his son at a house in Ayr, South Ayrshire on November 1 in 2017.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow heard blood was also found on Kaleb’s spinal cord and that it was unlikely that he was dropped from a small height.

Prosecutors claim Penn did “repeatedly inflict blunt force trauma” on the child by “means unknown”. It is also alleged that Penn compressed and shook Kaleb.

The boy is said to have died at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow two days later.

Penn faces a separate charge of earlier attempting to murder the baby at the same house between October 13 and 31 2017. He denies the accusations.

A consultant neuropathologist professor Colin Smith, 53, who examined Kaleb’s brain after his death, gave evidence at the trial and claimed that the baby had suffered from “classical trauma.”

Professor Smith also claimed there was evidence of previous bleeding to the brain dated seven to 10 days before Kaleb’s death.

The trial continues before Lord Weir.