Norwich - A childminder shook to death a five-month-old baby boy in her care after losing her temper, leaving him "floppy like a rag doll", Norwich Crown Court heard yesterday.
Ms Helen Stacey (41) flung Joseph Mackin onto a cot mattress or sofa, causing him fatal brain damage, it was claimed. She had only begun looking after him four days earlier.
Ms Stacey, who has four children of her own, denies murder.
The jury at Norwich crown court was told that when Mr Anthony Mackin, Joseph's father, arrived at Ms Stacey's home in North Walsham, Norfolk, in May of last year to collect his son, he found him sitting in his chair, scarcely breathing.
"He was very slatey grey in the face. His eyes were quite dark. The skin around his eyes was quite dark and there was a blue tinge to his lips," Mr Mackin said.
Dr Nicholas Coleman, a paediatric pathologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, said blood around Joseph's brain showed categorically that he had died from a shaking injury. There was no sign of any natural cause of death, he added.
The trial continues.