Man 'drank, smoked' as baby died

Kyle was two months old when he died

A man accused of suffocating and murdering his son drank lager and smoked a cigarette while ambulance staff tried to resuscitate his son, a court has been told.

Emergency services worker Alister Crighton said he found the accused "sitting by the fire drinking a can of lager and smoking a fag" when he arrived at the house.

The retired ambulance worker tried in vain to revive the two-month-old boy.

Ian Metcalfe, 34, is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, where he denies murdering his son Kyle on 27 January, 1988.

Metcalfe has denied the charges against him

He is also accused of the attempted murder and later the murder in March 1996 of another son, six-month-old Dylan.

Mr Metcalfe is further alleged to have twice attempted in 1989 to murder another child, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The jury, on Tuesday, heard from a neighbour how Mr Metcalfe had burst into his house carrying the "floppy" body of Kyle.

Grant Johnstone, 30, said Mr Metcalfe came into the house and said: "There's something wrong. The bairn's not breathing."

The police constable, who was a 16-year-old at the time, described how Mr Metcalfe offered the "limp" body of the infant to his mother, Alison Johnstone, and stood back as an ambulance was called.

The incident happened in Annan

Mr Johnstone said: "He appeared distressed and agitated. Throughout, he was continually shaking and seemed tearful, his voice was breaking."

He added: "My mother asked him what had happened and he said he just found the baby lying like that in the pram when he went to pick him up."

The jury of seven women and eight men earlier heard evidence from babysitter Roseanne Campbell.

Ms Campbell said she had been looking after Kyle on the day of his death, and that when Mr Metcalfe came to pick up his son, about two hours before the infant died, the baby had been fed, winded and changed and "appeared fine".