A father accused of killing his baby son told police that the infant seemed fine just half an hour before he was found not breathing in his Moses basket.

A jury today heard distressing details of the events surrounding the death of six week old Kye Kerr, including a first detailed account given by the child's father Craig Beattie, 33, of the hours leading up to the tragedy at the home in Carlisle where he was staying with the baby's mother Jodie Kerr, 26. 

Beattie denies manslaughter.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how a week after Kye's death, a post mortem revealed that he had sustained a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain - an injury which the prosecution say was likely to have been caused by "a significant impact", and which showed signs of being "non accidental."

A neurosurgeon has suggested the injury was caused by "traumatic shaking."

On the second day of the trial, a police officer read aloud a statement which Beattie gave to Detective Sergeant Tracey Nimmo just a few hours after Kye was confirmed dead by medics at The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

He told the officer how Kye had been born two months prematurely and had to be looked after in the hospital's special care baby unit. But two weeks and four days before his death, Kye was allowed home.

Apart from having a heart murmur, he was fine, said Beattie.

Describing the hours before Kye was found not breathing in his cot, Beattie recalled looking after him as Jodie Kerr slept at their home in Meadow View, Harraby.

He said he heard the baby crying at 4.30am, and had gone upstairs to get him. "I picked him up and gave him his dummy and he was chomping on it," Beattie told the officer.

The defendant spoke of sitting on the sofa downstairs with his son over his shoulder as the child fell asleep. He told Sergeant Nimmo: "I was just looking at him and stroking the the back of his hair."

At 5.45am, he said, he fed the baby for around half an hour, winding him a couple of times.

Beattie said he had gone upstairs at 7.15am to 7.20am to check on Kye. "He seemed fine he appeared to be breathing," he said and so he had gone back downstairs.

He continued: "I went upstairs for the toilet at 7.45am to 7.50am and went back into the bedroom to check on Kye. He was lying on his back with his head on its side. I could see what looked like purple lines on Kye's face next to his right eye where he was lying into the mattress.

"Jodie got up and said what's that Mark. She said he was cold."

Medics also gave a detailed account of their efforts to save Kye, who was pronounced dead at 8.47am on July 11, 2011.