A MOTHER accused of murdering her newborn son claimed her partner refused to buy the baby any milk.

In an interview with police, told to a jury at Manchester Crown Court, Catherine Davies claimed the boy was weak and small and she had difficulty breast feeding him after his birth in August last year.

But she alleged only her partner, Anthony Clark had any money and he refused to buy anything for the child.

“He said he could only provide for me or the baby — one or the other,” she said.

Davies had not had any medical supervision during her pregnancy, which the couple kept secret from the authorities and the child lived only a few days after his birth at their Thornbank East, Bolton, flat.

“He wasn’t a strong baby. He needed an incubator,” said Davies. “I wanted to get someone involved. I was worried about his needs. When I was speaking about it to Anthony he said I wasn’t entitled to any help.”

She added that Clark warned her that she would be jailed because she had not registered the birth.

Davies, aged 25, told police that the child had been born quickly and Clark had cut the umbilical cord, but she had initially refused to hold her son. She added that 35-year-old Clark told her that the baby ‘only has so long to live’.

Davies claimed Clark had not wanted the baby and had wanted her to abort it, using a screwdriver, when she was six months pregnant.

After the child died the pair put him in a shoe box before taking him to Heaton Cemetery where Clark used a chisel to dig a grave for the infant. The prosecution claims the baby died after being dehydrated and starved to death.

The court heard Clark refused to answer police questions, but in a prepared statement said he had not tried to stop Davies seeing a doctor and claimed he has learning difficulties.

Clark admits concealing a birth but denies murder. Davies denies both offences. The trial continues.