Midhurst man charged with murder of Worthing baby

Jerome Edwards, 27, unemployed, of Bridgefield Close, Midhurst, will appear in custody at Worthing Magistrates’ Court today (Thursday, December 8).

Edwards was arrested at his Midhurst address yesterday morning by detectives from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team who have been investigating the death.

The investigation began on Saturday, May 14 this year after Crystal, of Christchurch Road, Worthing, died in St Thomas’s Hospital, London, having been transferred there from Worthing Hospital on the previous day.

Paramedics had been called to an address in Nursery Lane, Worthing, at 9.56am on Friday, May 13 and resuscitated the baby who had stopped breathing.

She was taken to Worthing Hospital, from where she was collected by a specialist team from St Thomas’s Hospital in London. She arrived in London shortly after 4.30pm on Friday and was pronounced dead at 3.05pm on Saturday.

At 5.04pm a man was arrested at St Thomas’s by Sussex detectives on suspicion of murder and was returned to Sussex for questioning. On the Sunday evening he was released on police bail.

A post mortem was carried out on Monday, May 16 by a Home Office pathologist and a specialist paediatric pathologist.

The provisional cause of death was given as head injury and after further detailed and expert analysis by doctors specialising in infant head injury, it has been established that death was caused by internal head injuries. These are described as comprising Rotational Acceleration Decceleration Impact (RADI). There were slight external injuries to the head but these did not contribute to the death.

Bail had been extended until January 20 next year but the arrest has been made now because of receipt of the further forensic analysis.