THE father of Poppi Worthington watched pornography on his laptop in bed in the hours before his daughter's sudden death, a family court hearing was told. 

Poppi's mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was downstairs at the time in the family home in Barrow, where she often slept on the settee. 

All children in the house were in bed by 8pm on December 11, 2002, including Poppi who slept alone in a box room in a cot. 

Poppi's father, Paul Worthington, 47, said he went to bed at about 9pm and used his laptop to follow sports results he had gambled on and watched pornography, which he described as "involving adults", before falling asleep at about 10pm. 

He said he was woken in the early hours by a scream or a cry from Poppi and found her sitting in the corner of her cot. 

She was "rigid and stiff" and he thought she may have had a bad dream, he said. 

Mr Worthington said he picked her up and cuddled her before he took her to his room. 

He said her teeth were clenched as he tried to put her dummy in and that she only stopped screaming when he thought she had passed a stool. 

Mr Worthington said he went downstairs to fetch a clean nappy before returning to bed with Poppi who he did not want to disturb. 

A few minutes later he said he reached his hand out to touch Poppi and realised she was limp. 

He picked her up and ran downstairs and called for his wife to call for an ambulance. 

At 5.56am on December 12 Poppi's mother called 999 while Mr Worthington attempted to perform CPR on his daughter. 

He removed her nappy and pulled up her clothing. An ambulance arrived at 6.05am and a paramedic described Poppi as being "very pale, waxy and obviously not breathing". 

On the journey to hospital the paramedic and Mr Worthington continued to attempt resuscitation as a cardiac monitor showed Poppi's heart was not beating. 

After Poppi was collected from the ambulance the paramedic saw a mixture of blood and faeces on the stretcher sheet and went into the resuscitation room where she noticed there was blood on the youngster's bottom. 

The paramedic mentioned the blood to the father who was in the relatives' room and he explained his daughter had been constipated for several days.

Resuscitation attempts continued as the mother arrived at the hospital but Poppi was pronounced dead at 7.07am. 

The details of Poppi's last hours emerged for the first time today after High Court judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson ruled part of a fact-finding judgment he delivered in March 2014 in family court proceedings - involving other children in the family - could be published.

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