Update: The jury has been dismissed in the trial of Tiffany Tate and Michael Roe.
They were accused of being responsible for the death of their eight-week old daughter. Baby Holly was pronounced dead by paramedics at her home in Alderbrook Road in September 2018.
Tate and Rose face the prospect of a retrial (Now confirmed by the Crown Prosecution Service as beginning on 1st February 2021.)
During the proceedings at Hove Trial Centre the prosecution said it was no longer offering evidence against Tiffany Tate on the charge of murder. The trial however continued with Holly’s father, Michael Roe, charged with murder, and both Roe and Tate charged with causing or allowing the death of a child.
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Tiffany Tate and Michael Roe are accused of killing their baby daughter. They lived together at Alderbrook Road in Crowborough when baby Holly was born in July 2018.
Emergency services were called to the house in the early hours of 10th September after the couple reported the eight-week-old was not breathing.
Paremedics found Holly to be cold, not breathing and with no heart activity at all.
Paramedics battled to save Holly before she was taken to Pembury Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Later post mortem examinations showed that the cause of death was a traumatic head injury and her body suffered numerous head and rib fracture incurred across different occasions.
The parents are both accused of murder and allowing the other to kill their baby. However during the trial the prosecution will argue the strength of the evidence suggests Roe is responsible, and jurors must decide.
The original trial in March was abandoned because of coronavirus.
Hove Trial Centre was one of the few Covid-19 compliant courts to reopen after the lockdown. Tate and Roe deny the charges. The trial is expected to last four weeks.
The trial will receive considerable attention from both the regional and national media. Click to follow proceedings: Parents accused of “shaking baby to death”.
