Mrs Patel is charged with murdering three of her own babies

A mother accused of suffocating three of her babies broke down as she listened to the 999 call she made when her first son stopped breathing.

Pharmacist Trupti Patel, 35, was in Reading Crown Court accused of murdering her sons Amar, aged three months, Jamie, aged 15 days, and her daughter Mia, aged 22 days.

Mrs Patel, who at the time of the deaths was living in Maidenhead, Berkshire, denies suffocating her babies either by squeezing their chests or blocking their noses or mouths.

She sobbed as the court was played a tape of a 999 operator trying to help her revive Amar.

All three alleged murders took place between December 1997 and June 2001.

The tape, played to the court, contained a recording of the 15-minute conversation Mrs Patel had with the operator on 10 December, 1997, when her first son stopped breathing.

Operator advice

As she listened to the recording, Mrs Patel broke down, holding her head in her hands and crying.

The jury heard Mrs Patel start the call by saying: "I have got a baby, he is not breathing."

The court heard the operator give Mrs Patel advice on resuscitating her baby.

The court then heard Mrs Patel tell the operator: "He does not look alive. He has gone pale."

You're doing everything you can for your baby at the moment, you are doing a really good job Emergency operator

The operator replied: "You're doing everything you can for your baby at the moment, you are doing a really good job."

But Mrs Patel said the baby's hands were cold "and his face is getting colder."

'Performing CPR'

Andrew Batty, the first paramedic to arrive at Mrs Patel's home told the jury the mother seemed initially "calm" despite the fact that her baby was not breathing.

"There was a young baby on the floor next to the telephone," he said.

"I cannot remember exactly what she (Mrs Patel) was doing but it appeared as though she had been performing CPR," he said.

He told the court that Mrs Patel had told him she found her son not breathing when she went to see the baby at 0930 GMT and had called an ambulance.

After attempts at resuscitation by the paramedic, an ambulance arrived and the baby was placed on a heart monitor.

There was some evidence of electric activity in his heart even though it was no longer pumping blood around his body, the court heard.

Mrs Patel followed Mr Batty to the ambulance and was "extremely upset", he said.

Cold developed

Later at Wycombe General Hospital, attempts to resuscitate Amar failed.

Dr Gulab Rastogi, a consultant paediatrician at the hospital, described how Mrs Patel reacted on discovering her baby was dead.

"Mrs Patel was very distressed. She was crying," he said.

"She did answer some questions but most questions were answered by Mr Patel," who had arrived in the meantime.

Dr Rastogi said the Patels had told him that Amar had developed a cold a couple of days earlier.

He told the court that Mrs Patel had told him that Amar had been coughing through the previous night and she had been to visit him, settling him back to sleep.

When she returned in the morning he was limp and not breathing, he said.

Dr Rastogi told the hearing that medical tests had found evidence consistent with Amar having a cold.

The trial continues.