Passenger 'tried to save' dead Stratford bus baby Published duration 16 March 2017

image copyright Julia Quenzler image caption The couple, of Newham, east London, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of their child

A passenger wept as she told a court how she tried to save the life of a dead baby on a bus.

Rosalin Baker, 25, and Jeffrey Wiltshire, 52, deny murdering 16-week-old Imani and trying to cover it up by staging her death in public.

The Old Bailey has heard the infant was already dead when her mother boarded the bus in Stratford, east London.

But jurors were told how Ms Baker told passenger Fjoralba Shmitz: "There's something wrong with my baby".

Moments before, the mother had gestured for her to come over while talking on her phone, Ms Shmitz said.

"I saw the baby's face. I touched her left cheek. It was cold," she told the court.

"The baby was not breathing. I tried to help but I didn't manage to do so."

'Seemed very relaxed'

Ms Shmitz told the court how she took the baby and asked the driver of the number 25 bus to call paramedics.

She said: "I became distressed because the baby was not moving. I took the child in my arms.

"I went up to the bus driver and asked him to call the police and the ambulance. I thought that the baby was dead.

"I took the baby back to the bus seat and a lady - I think she was Spanish - started praying."

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson asked Ms Shmitz how Ms Baker had reacted.

"She was not crying, she was not shouting, she was not speaking and there were other passengers on the bus too who were asking if it was my son," she said.

Cross-examining, Icah Peart QC, asked if Ms Baker seemed detached during the "distressing episode".

Ms Shmitz replied: "As far as I'm concerned, she seemed very relaxed."

The jury has heard Imani had been attacked at least three times before her death, leaving her with 40 rib fractures, a fractured wrist and head injuries.

The couple, of Newham, east London, deny murder and causing or allowing the death of their child.

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