THE jury in the case of a father accused of murdering his 15-week-old son by shaking him violently, has retired to consider its verdict.

Matthew Jones, 26, formerly of South Bank, Beaufort, Ebbw Vale, has been on trial for more than two weeks at Newport Crown Court after pleading not guilty to murder and manslaughter.

The charge relates to what have been described by prosecuting counsel Paul Lewis QC as "catastrophic head injuries" which it is claimed Jones inflicted upon Cody Rhys Williams-Jones on December 7 2016.

The judge, the Honourable Mr Justice Picken, summing up the case, referred to a range of evidence presented by expert witnesses for the prosecution, and to that given by Jones earlier this week in his defence.

The former included consultant opthalmic surgeon Danny Morrison, who had concluded, said Mr Justice Picken that the retinal bleeding discovered in Cody's eyes was "almost certainly the consequence of an impact or shaking-type injury".

Another, neuro-pathologist Professor Colin Smith, who specialises in brain trauma, concluded that a fall onto a bed - Jones maintains Cody fell from his arms as he, Jones, reached for some teething gel - cannot be an explanation for the baby's devastating injuries.

And a third, neuro-radiologist Dr Neil Stoodley, had said Mr Justice Picken said Cody's injuries were the result of "an episode of abusive head trauma".

Jones, an electrical engineer at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital near Llantrisant, who has played rugby for Ebbw Vale and Newbridge, had been at home alone with Cody in the early evening of December 7 2016 when he made a panicked phone call to his partner, Cody's mother Paula Williams, urging her to come home quickly as there was something wrong with the baby.

This followed a call several minutes earlier when he had asked where Cody's teething gel was.

Mr Justice Picken reminded the jury they had been told that Jones allegedly gave different accounts of what happened to Cody to different people that evening, including that the baby had fallen from his arms onto the bed, a laminate floor, and had hit his head on a wooden changing table.

He reminded them too, that Jones, giving evidence, had maintained that Cody had fallen onto the bed and bounced over, and denied saying to anyone he had fallen to the floor or hit his head on a changing table.

He had, said Mr Justice Picken, told them that he had been "inconsolable" and "all over the place" because of what had happened.

He had denied shaking Cody or losing his temper with him. he had not done anything to his son that night, and "could not make sense of what had happened to Cody".

He had said it was nothing to do with anger and fruistration, and had denied that he could not cope with Cody's crying.

The jury will resume its deliberations tomorrow morning.