A TEENAGER accused of murdering his newborn baby has claimed that he lied to police about what happened to the child because he wanted to protect his girlfriend.

A TEENAGER accused of murdering his newborn baby has claimed that he lied to police about what happened to the child because he wanted to protect his girlfriend.

The 17-year-old told a jury at Ipswich Crown Court that his 15-year-old girlfriend had given birth alone in the middle of the night at her parents' home in Eye while he was asleep and the little boy was already dead when he saw him for the first time.

The youth and his girlfriend, who is now 16, are jointly accused of murdering their newborn baby on October 7 last year. They cannot be named for legal reasons.

On his first day in the witness box the boy described his shock at being woken up in the middle of the night by his girlfriend and being told that she had just given birth in a downstairs toilet and the baby had died.

He had then been taken by her to a garden shed where he saw the baby lying on the floor.

He said when he held it he noticed that the little boy had a misshapen arm and wasn't breathing but when he asked what had happened she said she had done nothing wrong.

He claimed she then asked him to take the baby away and he had left it under a hedge in a nearby alleyway before contacting his brothers who took the baby to the Gilchrist Birthing Unit in Eye where the emergency services were contacted.

The youth admitted lying to the police after his arrest but said this was because he thought his girlfriend had done something to the baby and he wanted to protect her.

He admitted knowing his girlfriend was pregnant and said it had crossed his mind that she might be labour on the night the baby was born when she complained of having a stomach ache.

However, he had been tired after working all day and had to be up early the next day to play football, so he had gone upstairs to bed leaving her downstairs.

The trial continues today (Tues).