Dead toddler left for two weeks in cot

Drug user Aaron Goodman, 26, allegedly struck little Sam Back so hard in his stomach that his bowel ruptured.

He and the tot's mother, former Bexhill woman, Emma Back, 21, then left the boy lying next to his blood-splashed Winnie the Pooh poster while they took drugs, it was claimed. They were more concerned with raising 800 to pay off a drug debt than arranging his funeral, a jury was told.

The couple led relatives to believe Sam was a cot death victim but his grandparents eventually alerted police who broke in and found the body.

The "bright and playful" youngster died in Goodman and Back's flat in Church Road, St Leonards, in December 2000 just days before his second birthday.

A postmortem showed his duodenum had ruptured, traces of cocaine in his bloodstream and external injuries including a bite mark on his calf.

Prosecutor Jeremy Gold told Lewes Crown Court: "This case concerns the short life and violent death of a little boy. The prosecution case is he was murdered by Goodman just a few days before his second birthday.

"Emma Back was Sam's mother and although we accept Goodman alone murdered Sam we say she neglected him abysmally in the months before his death.

"The Crown asserts she had caused injuries to Sam herself or did nothing to prevent Goodman doing so. She failed to provide proper medical care."

He said a post mortem found traces of cocaine in Sam's bloodstream which possibly got there by passive inhalation. The evidence suggested Sam died on the night of December 9th and 10th but his body was not found until the 28th.

Mr Gold said that the relationship between Back and Sam's natural father had been "largely unhappy" and he was violent towards her.

Back, who split from Sam's allegedly violent father, and her son went to live at St Jude's Refuge in Bexhill in June 1999.

During her time there Back had regular contact with a health visitor and there were "no major concerns" for Sam's well-being.

Mr Gold said Back and her son moved out to a flat in Ninfield Road, Sidley, in January 2000 and she met and started a relationship with Goodman. Back confided to the health visitor she was concerned about him using drugs and was warned if there were drugs in the house Sam would be considered at risk. A social worker began to monitor Sam's well-being but in August 2000 a check-up found him "bright, co-operative and eager to play" and later that month Back moved into a flat with Goodman.

Contact with a health visitor and a social worker "tailed off" after the move with Back failing to respond to letters, the court heard.

On December 10 Goodman and Back were due to go for a meal with his parents Alan and Paula so they could give Sam some birthday presents. But that afternoon, said Mr Gold, Aaron phoned to say Sam was dead. They were given the impression it was a cot death and the body had been taken to the Conquest Hospital.

Goodman and Back allegedly refused help with funeral arrangements and subsequently failed to arrange one. The case continues