A Darlington toddler who died after suffering fatal head injuries was seen with bruises and appeared to be 'underdeveloped', a court has heard.

Charlie Roberts died in January after suffering head injuries consistent with shaking or throwing, Teesside Crown Court heard previously. It is alleged Christopher Stockton, his mum’s partner, inflicted the injury minutes after she left home with Charlie in his care.

Paula Roberts, 41, is charged with neglecting her son Charlie, aged one year and 10 months, while Christopher Stockton, 38, is charged with both child neglect and murder. They both deny all the charges.

In a 999 call Stockton told a call handler the boy had choked on a Hob Nob, the court heard.

On Monday (November 18) a jury watched video of a police interview where Charlie’s biological father Barry Greenwell recalled seeing bruising to his son’s head, ribs and chest, but passed these off as being from him stumbling when walking,

The court heard Mr Greenwell and Paula Roberts had a four-month romance when he and his partner of 15 years had a break in their relationship, and Roberts fell pregnant.

“He’s started to walk so I just passed it off as he might have fell into a cabinet when he's walking or something like that,” Mr Greenwell told a detective.

“He had little bruises on his head or little bruises on his ribs and chest was the last one I saw.”

Recalling when he found out his son was in hospital he said: "I got a phone call at roughly 11 o'clock telling me that Charlie was in a coma at the hospital. That was about the length of the conversation. I was half asleep, I messaged her to ask which hospital and she said the one in Newcastle."

An officer asked him: "Did they ever give you any explanation as to how Charlie had ended up in hospital?", to which Mr Greenwell replied: "No".

He told the court how Charlie would spend Tuesdays with him but on the week he died he “got a call a nine o'clock saying [Charlie] had been sick in the car and she (Paula) presumed he had concussion from a fall he had on the Monday".

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Meanwhile Mr Greenwell’s father Ray, Charlie’s grandfather, told the court: “His muscle development was underdeveloped. His speech wasn’t where it should be. His walking was behind. Everything was behind. His arms and his legs were painfully thin.”

As well as a number of bruises he suffered in his last months, Charlie sustained a painful injury to the base of his private parts, the court head previously. When her brother noticed Charlie had bruised ears, Roberts told him the toddler had been sleepwalking and she had found him resting in a toy box.

The trial continues.