A POLICE officer told a court how he performed CPR in an attempt to save an eight-week old baby's life.
The constable was giving evidence at the first day of trial into the murder of the baby boy and the attempted murder of his two-year old sister.
The children's mother, who can't be named for legal reasons, has accepted she stabbed the youngsters but has denied the two charges.
Judge Donna McColgan KC told the jury their job was to determine what the accused's state of mind was when she attacked her two children in July 2021.
The 30-year old is standing trial at Belfast Crown Court.
The officer revealed he was on patrol with colleagues in the city on the evening of Tuesday July 27 last year when a call was received regarding reports of a suicidal woman who intended to kill her children and herself.
The constable said that after receiving the call, he arrived at the address within minutes but could not gain entry as the front door was locked.
He told how he tried to kick in the front door, and when this was unsuccessful, obtained a metal battering ram.
When asked by Crown prosecutor Richard Weir KC what happened next, the police officer said: "I heard a young child crying.
"I opened the door and saw the defendant sitting on a bed towards the back of the room. She was holding a young girl against her chest by her head and both parties were covered in blood, and the young girl was bleeding from the chest."
The constable revealed that when the girl's mother was put in handcuffs, he saw a baby lying on the bed.
When asked what he saw he said: "The baby was not moving. He was very pale, almost grey in colour. At the time, he didn't appear to be breathing."
The officer said he started to perform CPR on the baby - and at this point the child's mother told him 'I wouldn't worry about him. He's dead. I stabbed him.'
He said that after opening up the infant's babygrow to begin CPR he saw two puncture wounds to the baby's chest which "were actively bleeding".
The officer told how he performed CPR before ambulance crews arrived.
Paramedics took both children to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
While the young girl was successfully treated for a stab wound to her chest, her baby brother was pronounced dead.
Prior to this evidence being heard, the jury was told police were called to the home three days before the fatal stabbing over an allegation that the accused had been assaulted by the children's father.
As a result, he was not at home and was staying with relatives on the night in question.
Mr Weir said it was the Crown's case that the defendant called her partner on the night of 27 July, 2021.
During the call, he said that she told her partner that she loved him, that she had killed their son, attacked their daughter who was "lying slowly bleeding" and intended to kill herself.
She rang the PSNI around ten minutes later, repeated what she had done to her children and said "I killed my kid for him (her partner)".
Following her arrest, she was taken to hospital where she was treated for self-inflicted wounds.
When she was interviewed, she accepted she stabbed both her children but told police there was a domestic history between her and her partner and said "I did what I did because of him".