Stranger seen at home of tragic tot

Mar 1 2007 By Paul Bradley, Birmingham Mail

AN UNKNOWN Jamaican man approached the unlocked home where a baby boy lay sleeping just hours before he disappeared from his cot, a court heard.

Six-month-old Troy Simpson was tucked up in bed by his gran before she went to sleep for the night, but the next morning he was gone.

Two days after the disappearance on February 8 last year, the tot was found dead in a bin bag in a culvert near his home in The Uplands, Smethwick.

The boyfriend of his mother, Sherwain Smith, denies murder and perverting the course of justice.

Smith, 21, previously of Arden Road, Smethwick, denies murdering his girlfriend's child.

Troy's grandmother Theresa Simpson, told Birmingham Crown Court she did not know who the mystery man was.

Mrs Simpson said: "I heard a knock at the door as I was putting Troy to bed so I looked out of the window to see who it was. I saw a Jamaican man walking down the path but I did not recognise him. I don't believe it was Smith because he was not wearing his distinctive coat that has a large burnmark on the hood.

"I left the front door unlocked because my daughter, Danielle, had left without her key. It is possible that someone could have come upstairs during the night while I was asleep but I don't think it was Danielle because she is normally quite loud.

"I didn't hear anyone come in while I was sleeping but when the baby was gone in the morning I thought Danielle had been home and taken her."

Mrs Simpson left to do her cleaning job in the city centre at 7.40am and wrote a note to her daughter saying 'why didn't you wake me up last night and tell me you were taking Troy?'

She said she wrote the letter because she was mad with her.

Philip Parker QC, prosecuting, said: "Is it really possible that a stranger passing the house knew the front door was unlocked, went upstairs, took the baby and paused to get bin bags out of the kitchen? It was an inside job."

(Proceeding)