THE injuries to an 11-week-old baby whose father is accused of his murder could only have been caused by shaking or hitting, a pathologist said yesterday.

John McCarthy told Oxford Crown Court that Jayden Saxton’s trauma was caused by one, the other, or both.

Dr McCarthy was speaking at day four of the trial of 22-year-old Jordan Saxton, from Faringdon, who denies shaking his son to death on November 18 last year.

He told the court that Jayden’s trauma was so severe it had detached his retinas and would have left him permanently blind.

When prosecutor Paul Dunkels asked Dr McCarthy what could have caused the injuries, he said: “The only explanation that can be made is one of trauma to the head.

“One can divide that into impact trauma – in other words the head hit an object or an object hit the head – and movement trauma: movement of the head in relation to the rest of the body.

“The term that is used is shaking, but it is significant movement in relation to the rest of the body so head and brain movements accelerate and decelerate very rapidly.”

He added: “There are plenty of circumstances where there is a combination of head impact and movement, but there are no natural disease processes that would lead to this pattern of bleeding.”

Questioned by defence barrister Michael Wood, Dr McCarthy said the injuries would have been sustained between 48 and 72 hours before Jayden was pronounced dead at 10.30am on the day.

Early this week the jury heard the 999 call that Mr Saxton, a forklift truck driver in Cowley, made that Sunday night.

The court heard Jayden’s mother Tracy Ray left her son with Saxton at home in Untons Place that weekend when she went to her father’s house in Kennington on the Friday.

The trial continues this morning.