THE JURY in the trial of two Hampshire residents accused of causing or allowing the death of a three-week-old baby will continue its deliberations today.

On Friday, the jury in the case of Roxanne Davis, 30, of Gosport, Hampshire, and Samuel Davies, 24, of Southampton were sent out to produce a verdict.

The pair are on trial at Winchester Crown Court, facing an allegation of causing or allowing the death of three-week-old Stanley Davis.

Both deny the allegations.

The pair were arrested following the death of the infant in March last year.

The baby, from Gosport, was admitted to Queen Alexandra Hospital with serious injuries on March 21, but died on March 28.

Jury members had previously been told how the baby suffered skull fracture and brain haemorrhage.

He had also suffered 32 fractures to his ribs and nine to his arms and legs, sustained on three separate occasions.

Davies told the court the first time he had been aware of any injury suffered by Stanley was on March 16 when a health visitor spotted a bruise behind his ear.

He said he was told by the health visitor to leave and calm down after he became "agitated".

He denied causing the bruise and said he had previously believed it was a birthmark because that was what other people had told him.

He said: "I stormed off because, the way I look at it, that's the first time I have seen a mark on my son. It agitated me. I'm not going to stand and be calm that my son had a bruise behind his ear."

The court heard that he sent a text message to Davis saying: "We need to start watching how people are holding him, now I'm not going to take my eyes off him."

He said Stanley was looked after by himself and his co-defendant and her family. He added: "That baby from day two was passed around like a parcel."

Davies, who admitted regularly taking cocaine and cannabis, described violent arguments between himself and Davis during which she spat at him and punched him and broke items in his flat.

He added: "She would smash things up in the flat, ornaments, it would wind me up."

The court previously heard that on March 15, Davies had taken a photo of an article in The Sun newspaper about a mother who had taken her dead baby on to a bus to avoid detection over the child's death from a head injury.

James Newton-Price QC, prosecuting, earlier told the jury: "The prosecution ask rhetorically: what is Sam's interest in that court case."

Davies said he took the photo because he had been shocked by the case and added: "I couldn't believe what I was witnessing being a first-time dad, seeing a mother can actually take her dead child on a bus and say it wasn't dead.

"I thought it was outrageous, I wanted to share it with Roxanne. We both said it was disgusting."