Byline: Luke Salkeld
THE father of an unplanned daughter trawled the internet for information on how to kill a baby before suffocating the six-month-old in her cot, a court heard yesterday.
Mark Bruton-Young, a 36-year-old architect, believed he was suffering from male post-natal depression and resented little Harriet's 'intrusion' into his married life.
After researching various methods of killing, including choking and poison, he Googled information on cot deaths and smotherings days before Harriet died.
The court was told she was an unplanned child - despite the couple being married professionals in their 30s - and that the father had failed to bond with her.
Bruton-Young also blamed Harriet for marital problems with wife Clare, also an architect, who yesterday supported her husband at the start of his murder trial.
A few months after Harriet was born in December 2008, Bruton-Young used an office computer to look up having an unwanted baby adopted, the court heard.
He later gathered information on how a child might be harmed or die, as well as what physical signs might be detected if a baby was suffocated.
Police searches on the hard-drives of work computers found that Bruton-Young made hundreds of searches between January and June 2009.
He Googled the terms 'coming to terms with fatherhood' and 'I thought I wanted kids but now I don't know'. Over the next few months his searches explored death by anti-freeze poisoning, lead poisoning and the effects of punching a child in the stomach.
He also looked at the effects on a baby ingesting faeces before he searched 'dies of suffocation' on June 8, 2009.
Prosecutor Paul Dunkels said: 'The defendant's searches begin to concentrate on suffocation and the signs that might be left behind if a baby was suffocated.'
Bruton-Young is also said to have researched how to pass Harriet's death off as cot death - or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Search terms used only four days before Harriet was found dead included 'signs of deliberate suffocation', 'child suffocated by plastic bag' and 'father convicted of suffocation', the jury heard.
Mr Dunkels said: 'Chillingly, one of the last searches he made was "signs of a body being moved after suffocation".
'This reveals the full extent of his plan. He was later to claim that when he found Harriet he had found her lying on her front.
'The prosecution say that having smothered Harriet he set this scene of her facing downwards to show his wife.'
Yesterday, Bruton-Young, of Kingsway, Gloucestershire, sobbed as a recording of his 999 call in the early hours of June 27 was played to Bristol Crown Court. His wife could be heard screaming in the background as Bruton-Young told the ambulance operator Harriet was 'cold' and 'white'.
Two inconclusive post-mortem examinations had been carried out on Harriet. Professor Peter Fleming, of Bristol Children's Hospital, said the baby was at a 'very low risk of SIDS', while 'evidence of deliberate suffocation is very hard to identify'.
Mr Dunkels said: 'The defendant had succeeded in suffocating his daughter and leaving no detectable signs of what he had done. However, we say his computer searches reveal what his true ideas were.'
The prosecution also alleged Bruton-Young tried to poison Harriet with anti-freeze in the days leading up to her death after he called NHS Direct asking about the effects of the chemical on the body.
Mr Dunkels told the court: 'The prosecution say that his calls were made because of his continued concern about the post-mortem following Harriet's death. This concerned possible anti-freeze in her body, in an earlier attempt to harm her.'
NHS Direct contacted a social worker about Bruton-Young's calls.
Days later he was arrested on suspicion of poisoning Harriet. Police combed his house and found notes which said: 'I want her out of the equation.'
He claimed they were notes dealing with his post-natal depression.
Bruton-Young denies murdering his child at the end of June 2009.
The trial, expected to last three weeks, continues.
VICTIMS' MISERY
POST-natal depression in fathers is relatively common and researchers claim as many as one in ten may suffer from it.
Although they do not experience the same hormonal changes that trigger these emotions in women, it may be brought on by tiredness and emotional strain.
Doctors also say men are far more likely to develop post-natal depression if their wife or partner has the condition.
Last year, American researchers at the Eastern Virginia Medical School claimed as many as one in ten fathers develop the condition.
They claimed men tended to be happiest in the first few weeks after the baby was born.
But within three to six months, many had succumbed to some form of depression or anxiety.
CAPTION(S):
Support: Bruton-Young and wife Clare at court yesterday
'Resented': Harriet died aged six months
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