Court told baby’s eyes looked terrified

They are the words of a man accused of excessively shaking a baby, breaking its ribs and leaving it seriously ill in hospital with bleeding on the brain.

Daniel Holdaway told police in interview how he “wouldn’t even raise a finger to that child” when he was repeatedly asked about how the infant came to suffer the injuries.

He told detectives: “I haven’t touched him, honestly I haven’t touched him” during a series of interviews following his arrest.

Holdaway, 21, of Clovelly Road, St Mary’s, Southampton, was also asked if he had ever squeezed the baby, to which he replied: “No that’s sick. I don’t know about fractured ribs, I don’t know about them, I do not know how they occurred.”

He went on to deny ever injuring or shaking the child, who was four months old at the time.

Jurors at Southampton Crown Court heard Holdaway recall to police the events that unfolded at a house, leading to an ambulance being called for the baby.

He told how he had been sat watching a film when “all of a sudden” the baby pulled a peculiar face.

He said: “The eyes opened really wide and whole jaw line kind of stretched and it looked like it was terrified or something. I didn’t know what to think.”

Holdaway went on to say how the baby “gasped”, its eyes went narrow and he picked the child up underneath the armpits.

He told how the baby’s head “flopped back” and it went “limp” as it made the gasping noise again.

Holdaway said paramedics arrived and placed a mask over the youngster’s face. He was later told the child had cracked ribs and “something to do with his head”.

Holdaway denies three counts of grievous bodily harm on a baby on three separate occasions over a two-month period.

Proceeding.