Childminder in murder case 'starved baby of affection' before

The mother of a baby who died after allegedly being violently shaken by his childminder described yesterday how she feared her son's carer may have been starving him of affection.

Libby Osborne said she would often see Linda Bayfield, who was registered with Croydon council, cuddling other children, but not her eight-month-old son, Joshua.

The child had been going to Ms Bayfield's house for five weeks, along with his five-year-old sister, Katrina, when she became anxious, an Old Bailey jury was told. Mrs Osborne, an IT support consultant, said: "I was concerned he was not being loved as much as the other children, that they were not particularly bonding. I would note that he was not being held while other children were being held."

In the weeks before Joshua's death last year, Mrs Osborne said Ms Bayfield's attitude to her was not as friendly as it had been and she was snapping at the six children in her care.

On Tuesday 4 July, she received a call from Ms Bayfield at work to tell her Joshua was being taken to hospital after he stopped breathing. Mrs Osborne added: "She said Joshua had just cried out and had stopped breathing. I was hysterical."

Ms Bayfield, who admits she shook Joshua but says she only did so in an attempt to resuscitate him after he stopped breathing, made no mention of it on the telephone or when she turned up at Mayday Hospital, Croydon, where Joshua was diagnosed as having brain damage.

Ms Bayfield, 54, from Addiscombe, south London, denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter. The trial was adjourned until today.