Mother 'told choking three-year-old Alfie Lamb to "shush" as he was crushed to ...

A mother told her three-year-old son to be quiet as he was crushed to death by her boyfriend deliberately moving his car seat back, a court heard today.   

Alfie Lamb's head was wedged between the rear seat and the front passenger seat when Stephen Waterson twice moved his chair back 'as far as it could go,' a court heard.  

The three-year-old sobbed and cried out 'mummy' when he was crushed by up to 81kg of pressure and started making 'choking' noises in the car.

Witness Emilie Williams, 19, who was sitting in the back seat of the Audi, claims Alfie's mother told him to 'shush' after Waterson moved his seat into him for the second time. 

Waterson, 25, and Alfie's mother Adrian Hoare, 23, are accused of manslaughter after Alfie was crushed, starving his brain of oxygen and causing him to fall unconscious.

Alfie died three days after suffering a cardiac arrest at the couple's home in Croydon, south London. 

Waterson is alleged to have become irate as the boy was complaining he did not have enough room during the journey as he sat in the back footwell, between his mother's legs.    

Hoare, 23, also allegedly slapped the three-year-old as he screamed in the car, which was driven by Marcus Richardson. 

Waterson and Hoare lied repeatedly afterwards then assaulted the two other passengers in an attempt to cover up their crime, jurors were told. 

The court heard on the journey on 1 February last year, Marcus Lamb was driving, Waterson was sitting in the front passenger seat, and Hoare was in the back with Emilie Williams.

Ms Williams said her own daughter and Alfie were sat on the floor behind the front two seats. 

She told the Old Bailey on the second day of the trial that Waterson moved the Audi A4's front passenger car seat into Alfie as they drove back to Croydon. 

Ms Adkin QC said: 'You've said that Stephen moved the car seat back. He was then told to move it forward. You said that Alfie started crying - how has Adrian reacted?'

Ms Williams said: 'Just like, we'll be home soon, shut up. Sometimes it was just like in an annoyed voice.' 

Asked how Alfie was positioned, she replied: 'His feet were under the chair and he was putting his head back. He didn't have room for anything.'

She said Alfie went quiet after he stopped crying and she and Hoare were unable to wake him up. 

She added: 'As we was pulling up she (Hoare) thought to wake Alfie up but couldn't get anything and she told him to stop being silly because she thought he was mucking around. 

'I think he looked pale, I can't really remember - he wasn't moving.' 

Asked why she hadn't come forward sooner, Ms Williams' said Waterson had threatened her.

'He said that he'd put me in the boot of his car and get rid of me - he said that he'd kill me.'

Ms Williams then told the court via a video-link how Hoare slapped her in the face at an Asda store. 

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told the Old Bailey yesterday: 'This movement was a deliberate action by Waterson, who was angered by the noise and fuss that a three-and-a-half-year-old was making during the journey.

'Until he got into that vehicle with his mother and those others, CCTV showed that Alfie had been fit and well.

'It follows that during that car journey something happened to Alfie to compress his chest and abdomen so that he went from and active toddler, to a very seriously ill and brain damaged one.'

A forensics investigator found Alfie had been subjected to between 78-81 kg of force in 9.5cm gap. 

Paramedics were called to the couple's address on the evening of February 3 to find Marcus Lamb performing CPR on Alfie.

Hoare told paramedics that 'they had got into a taxi and put him in a child seat where he fell asleep.'

Haore also told paramedics 'I can't tell them what happened, I'm going to have to tell them what happened' over and over as they treated him, the court heard. 

'We tried to wake him and found him

read more from dailymail.....