A four-month-old baby suffered fatal brain injuries when she was shaken at her home in Gloucestershire, a jury has been told. Melissa Wilband, 28, and Jack Wheeler, 31, deny two charges relating to the death of Lexi Wilband in April 2020.
Both defendants are accused of Lexi’s manslaughter, and causing or allowing her death, in Newent, in the Forest of Dean. On Tuesday, March 4, Jane Osborne KC opened the case against Wilband, who was Lexi’s biological mother, and Wheeler, who was Wilband’s partner at the time of the baby’s death, to the jury at Bristol Crown Court.
Describing what happened to Lexi, she said: “She was shaken, the prosecution say, in a way that was quite obviously rough, unnecessarily violent and caused her brain to start bleeding.
“The prosecution don’t suggest that either Melissa Wilband or Jack Wheeler intended to kill Lexi or wanted to cause her serious harm.”
Ms Osborne said it would have been clear to the person inflicting the injuries to Lexi that “some harm would be caused by their actions”.
She told the jury that they would have to determine, if possible, which of the defendants caused Lexi’s fatal injuries.
Ms Osborne said: “There is evidence that this was not the first time that Lexi had been shaken. In those circumstances, and together with other circumstances surrounding their relationship and the way they lived their lives, the prosecution say that the person who didn’t inflict those injuries should or ought to have been aware of the risk to Lexi that there was from the other person and they did nothing to protect Lexi from that risk.”
The court heard Wilband and Wheeler had been in a relationship for about three years but had separated for several months when she fell pregnant by another man in early 2019.
In spring that year, the couple restarted their relationship and Wheeler believed he was the father of Lexi until shortly after her birth in November 2019, following the results of a DNA test.
“Despite this, he decided to remain in a relationship with Ms Wilband and assisted in bringing up the child,” Ms Osborne said.
Wilband moved into a new-build council house in Newent in February 2020, with Wheeler visiting a few times each week until the Covid-19 lockdown, when he moved into the property.
Neighbours heard a woman crying inside the house and a man talking at about 11.30pm on April 12. The woman was heard saying words to the effect of: “What are we going to do now?”
Wilband called NHS 111 at 11.24pm on April 12, with paramedics attending the property to find Lexi on the floor. They were allegedly told by Wilband that Lexi had been in her bouncer chair when she cried, went floppy and unresponsive and stopped breathing.
Lexi was taken by ambulance to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, where she arrived at 12.40am on April 13. Doctors asked Wilband what had happened.
“Paramedics noted that Ms Wilband was rolling a cigarette and using her mobile telephone when answering questions,” Ms Osborne said.
Wilband was asked whether she would like to hold her baby before she was intubated but she declined to do this, she added.
Lexi was transferred to Bristol Children’s Hospital and a CT scan indicated she had suffered trauma, with old and new blood seen in her brain.
Dr James Fraser, at Bristol’s paediatric intensive care unit, was told by Wilband that Wheeler had carried Lexi upstairs in her bouncer chair and may have hit her head in the process.
Wilband later told ward sister Charlotte King that Wheeler had been “swinging the baby bouncer” while Lexi was inside and she had told him to “go careful”, Ms Osborne said.
Wheeler was arrested at the family home, which was noted by officers to be messy and untidy, with every kitchen surface covered with food and utensils.
In a prepared statement given at his police interview, Wheeler said Lexi “suddenly stopped crying and went floppy in his arms”.
A decision was made to turn off Lexi’s ventilator on April 17, following the results of an MRI scan. Both Wilband and Wheeler were present at the time.
Ms Osborne said Wilband was with her baby from 8pm until 11pm that night, when she left to go to sleep in a room in a different part of the hospital.
“Ms Wilband knew that Lexi might die during the night but she didn’t stay by her bedside. A staff nurse held Lexi’s hand through the night and remained with her.
“On the morning of April 18, Lexi seemed to have longer pauses in her breathing. Ms Wilband was told to attend the ward. She arrived just after Lexi had ceased to show any signs of life and had stopped breathing.”
A post-mortem examination gave Lexi’s cause of death as bleeding to the brain, caused by a non-accidental traumatic event such as someone “shaking her violently”, Ms Osborne said.
Further tests found the areas of bleeding in Lexi’s eyes were “too numerous to count”, she added.
Wilband, of Newent, and Wheeler, of Ledbury, Herefordshire, deny the charges against them and the trial continues.