Mother tells court how she had hospital conversation with nanny accused of shaking her baby

A tearful mother today told a court how she left her baby son in the care of a nanny only to return to find him seriously ill.

Lisa Rowlinson, a detective constable with Lancashire Police, said she and husband Paul, a detective inspector with the same force, left their baby son Isaac with maternity nurse Linda Wise when they went for an overnight trip to the Lake District.

It has been alleged at Liverpool Crown Court that Wise, 47, shook Isaac with such force it caused him brain damage and led to epilepsy and, eventually, to a fit which killed him.

Recalling the weekend of the Lake District trip in September 2006, Mrs Rowlinson told the jury she had left Isaac, then aged about 11 weeks, in Wise's care and he was 'perfectly happy'.

But she said the following morning their hotel passed on a message from Wise that the baby had been rushed to hospital.

Mrs Rowlinson, from Penwortham, Lancashire, told the court she and her husband became extremely concerned and telephoned the hospital where they spoke to Wise.

They then drove straight to the Royal Preston Hospital where Isaac was being treated.

She said: 'Linda had said Isaac was suffering a temperature but as soon as I got there I knew it wasn't just a temperature, he was really poorly.'

Mrs Rowlinson said Wise explained that when she had gone to feed Isaac at 6.30am that day, the baby was found to be rigid and his mouth 'clamped' around the bottle.

She said: 'Linda was saying she did the best she could and I was reassuring her.'

Maternity nurse Linda Wise (left) denies the manslaughter of baby Isaac

Mrs Rowlinson told the jury of seven women and five men she noticed at the hospital that Isaac had developed small 'pin prick'-sized spots on the inside his left ear.

Isaac was transferred to Manchester Children's Hospital and later that month his parents were told he had brain damage.

He was discharged from hospital in October that year and began suffering epileptic fits in the following November.

Isaac died in July last year, when he was 13 months old, after suffering an epileptic fit from which he never recovered.

Wise, of Gaerwen, Anglesey, North Wales, denies manslaughter.