The man accused of killing his own baby refused food and had to be put on suicide watch while locked in a Police cell, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday.

Karim Shaheed Salahuddin, 21, of Serpentine Road, Pembroke, is charged with murdering six-month-old Cassidy Ann Salahuddin by violently shaking her on May 5 last year.

Yesterday the court heard from Police officers who dealt with Salahuddin after his arrest.

Sgt. Stephen Cosham was station sergeant for Hamilton Police station on May 7 and 8 when a Police Constable approached him and told him that Salahuddin had told him was diabetic and was refusing food in his cell.

Sgt. Cosham said Salahuddin repeated the same message directly to him and added that he had no insulin and would soon fall into a diabetic coma.

The accused was taken to hospital, checked and returned to his cell after doctors said he was OK.

When he returned he asked for a chicken salad and was given it. The following day Sgt. Cosham was on duty again when he was told Salahuddin was a medical emergency.

Sgt. Cosham said: "I immediately attended his cell where he was lying on his bed. He was breathing, I spoke to him and he didn't react. "I touched both sides of his cheeks and he didn't react."

He said Salahuddin failed to react to other stimuli so he called an ambulance. Medics arrived and he was rushed to hospital but again was pronounced OK by doctors said Sgt. Cosham.

He said the defendant's sister brought a variety of foods to the cell but it was refused by Salahuddin.

P.c. Lyndon Woods was also on duty at Hamilton Police station during Salahuddin's stay. He told the court he took the defendant to the hospital on both occasions and also took him to St. Brendan's where he was evaluated. Earlier Salahuddin's lawyer Queen's Counsel John Perry had grilled Det Sgt. Dean Martin over statements taken from Salahuddin.

He suggested Police would not accept his client's version of events and they had branded him a liar. Mr. Perry said: "He was told he shook the baby and struck her, he denied it."

He said the accused had told Inspector Peter Giles that he was going up a hill when he slipped and the baby tumbled down the hill in his carrying seat. "He did not say he struck the baby. He didn't say he shook her several times."

Det. Sgt. Martin replied: "He said it in this statement and other subsequent interviews with a lawyer present."

Earlier in the trial medical experts have testified Cassidy died of a shaken baby syndrome and possibly a blow to the head.

Det. Sgt Martin said he took Salahuddin's statement down word for word as it was said on the night of the alleged attack and denied suggestion's differences in his handwriting indicated it had been added to at different times.

Mr. Perry suggested the language used was not typical of the man in the street but more like that of a police officer.

Mr Perry said: "He didn't say as implied in this statement that he picked her up and shook her a little bit and then she started crying."

Nor did Salahuddin say he shook her several times and that her head had been bobbling or that she had been moving a bit in his hands and had stopped breathing, said Mr. Perry.

"I am going to suggest to you that when he went down to pick up Cassidy she looked at him with a blank face, she wasn't crying, he called her name, she didn't respond. He realised she was hurt and took her to the hospital."

The trial before Chief Justice Richard Ground continues today.