A mother has spoken of the terrible moment she was told to switch off her baby daughter’s life support machine.

Georgina Hummel’s former boyfriend Jerome Edwards is accused of shaking her 11-month-old baby Crystal to death whilst babysitting her at his flat in Worthing.

The young mother had left her daughter at her 27-year-old boyfriend’s home to get some sleep. She told Lewes Crown Court he had phoned her on the morning of May 13 last year to say “Crystal’s stopped breathing”.

Miss Hummel, 18, ran from her home to Worthing Hospital , then accompanied her daughter in an ambulance to St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where she was told Crystal would not survive.

She said: “They were asking me to make the decision when to pull her tube out. But I didn’t want to do it.

“There would be no going back after I did it. The rest of that day was just a blur.

“My dad decided when to take the tubes out in the end because I couldn’t. I sat outside the room because I couldn’t watch it.

“I knew it would scar me for life. I couldn’t understand it. Because she was so healthy and happy all the time.”

Miss Hummel said that she had left her daughter with Edwards, who she had met when her daughter was a month old, overnight on three occasions.

“Jerome had a daughter of his own from a one-night stand but he had never met her. He treated Crystal like his own.

“He bought her presents and clothes and did everything he could and sometimes looked after her when I was too tired.

“He would make her bottles and change her. He was really good with her.

“The second time he looked after her he had her on the bed wrapped up and he went to the toilet and she managed to get out of the blanket and whacked her head on the metal headboard.

“He phoned me up straight away and said he needed to take her to the doctor because she had banged her head. I was shocked and crying.

“One of the other girls at the mother and baby centre told me that if she had a bruise it meant she would not have any internal injuries.

“He took her to the doctors but it wasn’t open because it was a Sunday but by the time we got back she was laughing and wasn’t sick.

“I just thought it was a little bang on the head.”

Miss Hummel said: “I loved being a mum. All the stuff like getting up in the night came naturally. When they are crying you know what they want.”

Under cross examination Dorian Lovell-Pank defending Edwards asked: “You yourself never had any concerns or worry about Jerome looking after Crystal?

“Although he wasn’t the biological father he was as good as a father?”

Miss Hummel agreed.

Edwards of Nursery Lane Worthing denies murder.

The trial continues.