THE mother of a six-week-old baby allegedly murdered by her grandfather told a court he phoned her while she was on a night out saying "she's not breathing, I can't get her to breathe."

Amelia Rose Jones had been left in grandfather Mark Jones' care on the night of Saturday November 17 2012 while her mum Sarah Jones went to the cinema.

But she had only just taken her seat when Mark Jones, her father, made that panicked phone call, Newport Crown Court was told.

Ms Jones' three other children were at her home in Waun Hywel, Pontnewydd, Cwmbran, with Mark Jones, but she said: "I assumed it was Amelia because she had been ill."

A friend drove her home, Mark Jones telling her on the phone during the journey that paramedics were with her daughter.

"When we got home the street was lit up with blue lights and Amelia was being carried into an ambulance," said Ms Jones.

At the ambulance doors Mark Jones came up to her in tears and said "I'm sorry."

Amelia was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital, then transferred to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where doctors subsequently discovered a fractured skull.

Of hearing this news, Ms Jones told the court: "I had no reason to doubt anyone in my family. I just thought they had got it wrong."

Later Mark Jones told her "whatever you do, don't give up on her, don't turn the machine off," and she said: "I thought he was being a caring dad."

But on November 19 that life support machine was switched off, following a prayer service Mark Jones did not attend, despite being invited.

Ms Jones was then arrested - though was subsequently released - and learned her father had been arrested too and taken to hospital. She still believed then that he was seriously ill with a brain tumour and prostate cancer.

Earlier in the trial, the court was told Ms Jones received phone calls from a withheld number from a Dr Hughes, who spoke with a foreign accent and told her of her father's illnesses and that he needed help. It was subsequently discovered that Mark Jones was not ill and that he had been 'Dr Hughes' but his daughter had not suspected.

Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, asked Ms Jones about an occasion earlier that November when he drove her and the children to Asda.

She went shopping, leaving him with the children. Amelia was crying and distressed when she returned, and he told her another of her children had kicked the baby's car seat.

Ms Jones said she had not heard Amelia cry like that before, and only heard her cry like it once more, shortly before she died, when she woke with stringy mucus coming from her mouth. But following medical advice that had cleared.

Cross examined by defence counsel Roger Thomas QC, Ms Jones agreed her relationship with Ian Skillern, Amelia's father, had been difficult, especially with Mark Jones around, as the two men disliked each other.

The jury has previously been told that it would have to decide if Mark Jones' dislike for Mr Skillern might be possible motive for murder.

Ms Jones agreed she had been very fond of Mr Skillern but he was verbally abusive to her and her father thought she was too good for him.

She said it was hard looking after three children when pregnant with Amelia, worrying about her father's health and seeking to mend her broken relationship with Mr Skillern, and Amelia's birth added to these pressures.

But she said if she was struggling she had a good support network, and admitted that included her father.

"Mark helped me out loads. he was really good," she said, adding that later there was hostility between them as he was "trying to do everything."

But she did not know how to tell him to back off without losing him from her life again, which happened when she was growing up, and which she did not want to happen again.

"I did not know how long he had left and I didn't want to hurt him," she said.

Proceeding