Jurors were told foster mum Sarah Higgins must have caused the fatal injuries to baby Skyla Giller after losing her temper and subjecting her to a "violent action".

Skyla suffered catastrophic brain injuries and died at Leeds General Infirmary two days after Higgins dialled 999 and told an operator that she had dropped the baby onto the floor while feeding her.

Leeds Crown Court heard Higgins, 42, and her husband Martin Dobson are both paramedics and were in the process of adopting Skyla at the time of her death on August 26, 2017.

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Manslaughter accused Sarah Higgins leaving Leeds Crown Court

The court was played a recording of the emergency call Higgins made from her home on Oakfield Grove, Skelmanthorpe, Huddersfield.

The defendant told the operator that Skyla was unconscious and unresponsive after she had dropped her.

Prosecutor Richard Wright QC said Higgins said she had been feeding Skyla milk from a bottle in the baby's bedroom.

Higgins told the operator that she had been struggling to feed her and dropped the child onto a carpeted floor from a low height as she tried to turn her around.

Leeds Crown Court

The defendant said Skyla had landed on her bottom or lower legs and did not strike her head during the fall.

Skyla underwent a scan at hospital and was found to have bleeding and swelling on the brain.

She had also suffered bleeding to eye tissue and optic nerves.

Mr Wright said there were also bruises on the baby's arm which could not be explained by the defendant.

Prosecutor Richard Wright, QC, told the jury: "The central issue for you to determine in this case is how that traumatic brain injury was caused.

"She maintains that the only contact that could possibly have caused the brain injury was a low level fall to carpet in which there was no blow to the head.

"The prosecution's case is that the injury to Skyla's brain was a non-accidental injury.

"We will invite you to conclude that the account given by the defendant of a low level fall cannot and does not account for the death of this child.

"We will invite you to come to the conclusion that while in her care, Sarah Higgins assaulted that baby by subjecting her to a violent action in which her head was subjected to repeated forces and acceleration and deceleration."

Mr Wright told the jury that it was the Crown's case that Higgins had experienced a "loss of temper".

He added: "Regrettably, that unlawful action caused Skyla's death and so we say that defendant is guilty of manslaughter."

Higgins, now of Hillcrest Avenue, Townville, Castleford, pleads not guilty to manslaughter.

Mr Wright said Higgins had full care of Skyla at the time of her death.

The defendant and her husband were in the process of adopting Skyla after she moved into the family home in May 2017.

The prosecutor said Higgins and her partner were both employed by Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

At the time of the incident Higgins was on extended maternity leave and her husband had returned to work.

On the day of the incident, August 24, 2017, Higgins took Skyla to a park with friends for a picnic.

The defendant made the 999 call at 6.18pm requesting an ambulance to her home.

Mr Wright said: "During the call Sarah Higgins told the operator that Skyla had been struggling to take her milk."

"As she tried to to turn Skyla around to have a better hold, she said she slipped from her grasp on to the carpeted floor."

Jurors were told that, just before making the emergency call, Higgins rang her husband at work.

He was working a 12-hour shift as a clinical supervisor at Wakefield ambulance station.

Mr Wright said: "He was told that he must return home as there was something with Skyla.

"Some of the call between Sarah Higgins and Martin Dobson can be heard in the recording of the call between Sarah Higgins and the operator. There were two calls going on at once."

During the recording, Higgins could be heard saying to her partner: "Come home now. On blue lights."

Higgins told the operator that the baby was groaning.

She said: "She not conscious but she's moving her limbs. It's involuntary movements. She not controlled in what she's doing."

The operator gave Higgins first aid advice during the call. At one point the defendant said: "I know what I'm doing."

Higgins' husband arrived home as Skyla was being treated in an ambulance outside the property.

The jury was told doctors were asked to consider if Skyla had any pre-existing medical conditions that could have led to her death.

Mr Wright said: "There is no possible explanation for spontaneous bleeding to the brain.

"There is no issue as to the treatment Skyla received in hospital.

"She had the very best care and was appropriately treated.

"Her death was caused by whatever happened to her when she was in the sole care of the defendant when she was admitted to hospital."

Higgins was arrested from an address in Castleford in March 2018.

She continued to maintain that she had dropped Skyla from a low height and that her head had not come into contact with anything.

Mr Wright said: "This was not an accidental death at all.

"Rather, this child was subjected to the unlawful application of an assault."

Referring to the call made by Higgins to emergency services, the prosecutor said: "There are some features of that 999 call that may strike you as odd.

"We say they reveal that the defendant knew that this was not an accidental injury

"Her first reaction was not to call 999 but to try and call her partner on his mobile phone and ask him to return to their house

"It would be stranger still for a paramedic to behave in that way, you may think.

"Was the defendant hoping beyond hope that in asking her partner to return home, they could together revive the child and not have to alert the authorities?"

The trial is expected to last between four and five weeks.

At the beginning of the hearing, trial judge Mr Justice Lavender warned members of the jury they may find some of the evidence in the case distressing.