by Julia Roberts

A teenage mum tried to kill her young baby by smothering it with a pillow as it lay in its cot, a court heard.

The five-week-old child, who cannot be identified, stopped breathing and turned blue but the grandmother resuscitated the infant before it was taken to hospital.

Maidstone Crown Court heard it was the grandmother who later reported her daughter to the police.

The child, now aged almost two, made a full recovery and had no lasting effects.

The child's mother, from Sevenoaks, denies attempted murder, claiming she did not intend to harm her baby.

Peter Gower QC , prosecuting, said the teenager was 18 when she gave birth last year.

She had a psychiatric history, having self-harmed, taken overdoses and suffered from a panic disorder.

Shortly after her child's birth she was also diagnosed as suffering from post-natal depression and was prescribed anti-depressants.

However, it was eventually decided by a health visitor that the mother no longer needed to take the anti-depressants.

The child had also been taken to a GP because it was wheezy but its heart and lungs were said to be normal.

The baby was later admitted to hospital with a viral upper respiratory tract infection and discharged a day before the mother is alleged to have tried to smother it.

The court heard that on the evening of the incident the baby was in its cot and started to cry while the mother was playing her PlayStation.

At about 8.15pm she called out to the grandmother and came downstairs with her baby in her arms.

"The baby was unresponsive, not breathing, pale in the face and had blue shading around the lips and nose," said Mr Gower.

"Its grandmother could not hear the child breathing. She could not detect any movement of the chest.

"She started immediately to give mouth to mouth resuscitation."

The baby's mother was said to be crying but not hysterical. Emergency services were called and the baby started to breathe again.

The infant was taken to hospital but discharged the next day.

When they returned home, the grandmother noticed a baby monitor had been turned off and was in the bathroom.

She asked her daughter if she had hurt the baby in any way. The child's mother, said Mr Gower, became defensive, tearful and said she could not bond with the baby.

"She said she was really sorry," the QC told the jury of eight women and four men. "She said she had put a pillow over the child's face."

Interviewed by police, she denied saying she put the pillow on the baby's face.

"I put the pillow on (the baby) because it smelt of me," she said.

"I didn't put it on (the baby's) face. I just put it on (the baby's) stomach."

In a later interview she said in a prepared statement she never hurt the baby or tried to in any way.

The QC told jurors they would have to decide if the baby stopped breathing and, if so, was it caused by the child's mother putting a pillow over its head.

"If the reality of this case is the mother put the pillow over her baby's face intending to stop it breathing and intending to end its life, she is guilty of attempted murder."

The trial continues.