A BABY boy died after being shaken by his mother’s new boyfriend when she went to get her lover a bacon roll, a court has heard.

Mitchell Gibbs, 28, went back to smoking cannabis after causing fatal “whiplash” injuries to Albie Johnson, who was almost 10 months old, while Sophie Crowther, 22, left her son in his care to go to a cafe, a jury was told.

Woolwich Crown Court heard the pair had been in a relationship for just four weeks when paramedics were called to Ms Crowther’s first-floor flat in Dagenham, east London, on October 5 2018.

READ MORE >> Four people assessed by ambulance crew following double decker bus fire

Despite receiving emergency medical treatment, Albie died at Great Ormond Street Hospital two days later.

Gibbs, from South Ockendon, Essex, denies manslaughter, while Crowther, from Bethnal Green, east London, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of child cruelty.

The cruelty charges relate to her allegedly leaving Albie alone with Gibbs on the day he was injured and twice assaulting her son by hitting his bare leg and foot, and pulling him from his cot by his clothes before throwing him onto the sofa, between July 1 and August 31 2018.

Prosecutor Sally O’Neill QC told a jury there was no dispute the “severe injuries” that killed Albie were caused unlawfully by him “being forcibly shaken so that his head went violently backwards and forwards”.

“There is no issue that this is what was done to Albie and that he died as a result of what was done to him,” she said.

“It must be apparent that whoever did that to him was acting unlawfully in the full knowledge that they were causing at least some harm to the baby.

“That is manslaughter and the prosecution case is that the person who acted in that way with Albie, also probably throwing him onto a hard surface, was Mitchell Gibbs.

“He denies that, which leaves the only other person as far as he is concerned who could have done it was Sophie Crowther.”

But the prosecutor said “it is not conceivable” the injuries were caused before she went to a nearby cafe before returning to the flat after around 12 minutes with a bacon roll later found on the sofa.

“Her responsibility for what happened was for having left her 10-month-old son in the care of someone she had been in a relationship with for only four weeks and who was smoking cannabis at the time,” she added.

Jurors were told Ms Crowther said in a 11.16am 999 call: “He was drinking his bottle and then he just started choking and now he’s gone all limp and he’s turning blue.”

Just three minutes earlier, Gibbs had told a friend during a phone call “he was smoking a zoot”, the court heard.

“This would have been just before Sophie Crowther arrived back at the flat,” said Ms O’Neill.

“If that was true and Mitchell Gibbs was the person who had deliberately and forcefully shaken Albie, he went back to smoking his cannabis after he had done so.”

The court heard both defendants, who are on bail, initially lied about what had happened, claiming Albie started choking while he was in his cot drinking juice before Gibbs picked him up and “shook him a bit” and she did CPR on him.

The court heard Crowther has already pleaded guilty to a count of perverting the course of justice relating to the lies she told to the emergency operator, a doctor and police.

The trial, which is expected to last up to five weeks, continues.