placed her baby's life in her hands They were childhood friends who grew up to love one another as sisters. Roshea Young trusted Sharina Tuzo so much she was willing to literally place her baby's life in her hands.

To this day, she cannot understand how Tuzo could stand by and do nothing while her boyfriend, Jermaine Pearman, battered five-month-old Saed. On his final day in their "care'', the child had collapsed into unconsciousness suffering from fatal fractures to his skull.

In an exclusive interview with The Royal Gazette Ms Young spoke of her disbelief that a couple whom she thought loved her little boy are responsible for his death.

"I don't have anything for Sharina. She betrayed my love and my trust the day I got my son back all bloated and bruised,'' said Ms Young.

"At first I didn't think she would let that happen. I was in shock. I felt like I was walking outside my body. When I realised the extent of the injuries, then I knew there was no way it could have happened from him falling off a bed, and that's when I realised she was covering up.

"I hold her accountable for the loss of my son's life. She could have taken Saed to my mother's when she knew this was happening. It's not as if she didn't have a chance to be away from Jermaine.

"She's ruined her life and Saed's life has been foolishly taken away for nothing.

"What Jermaine did was wicked, in fact it was beyond the realms of wickedness. It was inhuman. Saed was in excruciating pain for nothing. I can't see any justice for it or any gratification he could have got from it.

"I feel nothing for Jermaine. The day I found out the pain my son was suffering was unbearable and to know there was nothing as a mother I could do to make it better made it worse.'' Ms Young met 20-year-old Tuzo when she was aged six and they were neighbours in Glebe Road, Pembroke. But their friendship did not fully blossom until they were reunited again as neighbours when Ms Young moved to Somerset.

By this time, Ms Young was 18 and had had her first child, Taj Kolanje Browne, who is now five.

"I regarded her as a sister, I loved her,'' Ms Young said of Tuzo. "She was my best friend, the sister I never had. We were always together. We talked about almost everything. I would have cut off my right arm for her and I trusted her completely.'' When Saed was born on March 5, 1997, it was "automatic'' that Tuzo would be the godmother and Pearman the godfather.

"Sharina was very excited when Saed was born,'' Ms Young recalled. "When I had him and couldn't call, she was very upset because she wanted to be there.

"She was very possessive of him and didn't want anyone else to be the godmother. She wanted him to be like her baby and she was always referring to him as her baby.'' Ms Young also recalled that Tuzo bought Saed a set of clothes and baby equipment which she kept at the house in Bob's Valley Lane, Sandys Parish, for when the infant came to stay.

Ms Young had two other boys at the time, Taj, and Jakiem, now four, and was living in the Teen Haven hostel for single mothers in Pembroke. She had her hands full and was grateful to Tuzo for offering to occasionally look after Saed.

But Tuzo and Pearman became over-protective and began asking to have Saed to stay with them a week at a time.

The baby had stayed overnight at their house in Sandys Parish on a couple of occasions, but Ms Young had no fears about her best friend taking the baby for a week this time.

On August 16, Ms Young handed her healthy boy to Tuzo. It was the last time she was to see him conscious. When she collected him on August 26, three days after the couple were supposed to return him, Saed was bruised and could not be roused.

She recalled: "I trusted Sharina as a female so I had no apprehension at all.

From what I knew of Jermaine, he was quiet and I thought he was nice. He and I used to talk a lot and joke and I was taken aback by his personality.

"I thought he loved my son as well, and they both portrayed an image that they loved him and didn't want anyone else to have him. At that point, they had proved themselves to be honest and trustworthy.

"I literally put my son's life in their hands, but I didn't realise then how literal it was.'' Ms Young is still trying to come to terms with the painful fact that her trust in Tuzo cost her son his life, that the woman she thought was her best friend could stand by and do nothing while the child was so brutally abused.

She said: "Now all I can do is go to the grave and visit him. All I showed him in life was love, but all of his last time on earth he was in pain.'' Trial and tears: Friend Tiny Kelly (above left photo) comforts Roshea Young outside the Supreme Court yesterday as Roshea's mother, Joann Woods and her cousin, Takiyah Stovell look on. (Upper right) Baby Saed Young in happier, healthier days.