Baby 'saved' days before death

The trial of a mother accused of smothering her two baby sons has heard how a health visitor saved the life of one of them just days before he was allegedly murdered.

A routine post-natal visit by Gloria Peacock turned into a fight to save six-week-old Jason Cannings with the kiss of life. Mother Angela Cannings, who had already lost her daughter Gemma apparently to cot death, said as she opened the door to Mrs Peacock: "It has happened again," the court heard.

Cannings denies murdering Jason nine days later on 13 June 1991, and her second son Matthew who died in similar circumstances in 1999, by obstructing their nose and mouth.

Mrs Peacock told Winchester crown court she did not know what Cannings meant but went to the bedroom of the flat in Winterbourne-Gunner near Salisbury. "I saw Jason lying on the bottom of a double bed at a slight angle. He was white, not moving," she said. "I knew then that she meant he had died. I thought he was a cot death. He was not breathing, he was white, lifeless."

She knew Cannings, 38, had been given a breathing alarm following Gemma's death and was sure it was not sounding in the flat.

"I dropped what I was carrying and I tipped Jason's head back over the bed to open his airway." After checking his mouth for fluid, she said: "I put my mouth over his nose and mouth and began breathing gently and continued to do that for a number of breaths." She sent Cannings to call an ambulance-"Jason then gasped and seemed to respond," she said. "And I carried on breathing into him for another short period. Mrs Cannings came back and she was very agitated. I thought 'I need some help' and asked her to phone her husband."

Asked what Cannings was doing, Mrs Peacock said: "She seemed very shocked. She was, I think, sobbing. I handed Jason to her and put him in her arms but she seemed shocked and unable to respond so I took Jason back and walked up and down with him on my shoulder."

As they waited for an ambulance Cannings' husband rushed back from work and as he entered the flat she could hear his wife apparently being sick in the bathroom.

Jason was taken to hospital after the emergency in 1991 but nine days later he died.

Cannings told police she found him lifeless after his breathing alarm sounded on 13 June, 1991 and his death was attributed to cot death.

It was only then that police launched a murder enquiry. Cannings is not accused of murdering Gemma in 1989.

Mrs Peacock, a nurse and health visitor for more than 30 years, said Cannings gave no explanation for Jason's condition: " It was an emergency, I just wanted to make sure Jason was breathing. This wasn't a situation where you discussed and asked questions that could be asked afterwards."

The case continues.