A toddler was seen spinning around as she fell head-first from a flat window, before hitting a shop awning and a passerby, a jury has heard.

Prosecutor Geoff Gelbart retold witnesses’ accounts as he laid out the case against the 18-month-old girl’s mother, whose trial began at Maidstone Crown Court this week.

The 31-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, denies the charge of neglect.

Judge Jeremy Carey heard how one witness, John Gilson, had just walked out of a shop in Station Road, Rainham, at about 8am on August 5 last year, when he “heard a bang and felt something hit his shoulder”.

Mr Gelbart continued: “When he looked down he saw a small baby on the pavement.”

Another witness, Rebecca Zacharow, had been walking down Station Road to catch a train when she became aware of “an object coming from the window of a flat above a shop,” said the prosecutor.

"At first she thought it was a doll. It was spinning around diving head first. It hit the awning of the shop and then it hit the old man..." - Prosecutor Geoff Gelbart

“At first she thought it was a doll,” he said. "It was spinning around diving head first.

“It hit the awning of the shop and then it hit the old man.

“It’s probably those two acts of pure fortune that saved the baby’s life.”

The court heard how passers-by had gathered round, and Ms Zacharow had picked the baby up as an ambulance was called.

The child’s mother had appeared at the window, looking shocked, minutes after the fall, and then raced down in her dressing gown.

Bleeding and bruised, the child had seemed initially to be unconscious but began crying when the ambulance arrived.

The young girl needed minor surgery for her head injury, but was discharged from hospital days later, and had seemingly made a full recovery since the fall.

Mr Gelbart explained that another witness, Karen Kent, had described passing the same spot four days earlier and seeing a “child estimated between 18 and 24 months” crawling along the window ledge near to an open window.

And the prosecutor told the jury that they would hear evidence from the defendant’s step-mother, that she had previously had concerns about the child’s care.

The defendant had been interviewed by police and admitted having fallen asleep while the window was open, said Mr Gelbart.

“She was woken by the sound of her child screaming, but it was strange.

“She wasn’t screaming in her room. The screaming was from elsewhere.”

Mr Gelbart also laid out the basis of her defence, adding: “She says she wasn’t wilfully neglectful – it was all a terrible mistake; it was an accident.”

The trial continues.

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