A father suspected of murdering his five-week-old son killed himself after giving police conflicting accounts of how the baby died, an inquest heard today.

Cooper Eddie Johnson-Hicks died of brain injury from multiple skull fractures after being rushed to hospital by parents Bryony Johnson, 23, and Tristan Hicks, 20, who were both arrested on suspicion of murder.

After Cooper's death on June 26 2016, both were arrested and bailed, with the case against Miss Johnson being dropped in December.

Mr Hicks was bailed and referred to a psychiatric unit, but was re-arrested upon his release on July 21 and killed himself in his father’s garage while on bail two days later.

He was found unconscious on the floor with a ligature round his neck and died of an hypoxic brain injury. 

An inquest into Cooper’s death heard Mr Hicks gave different versions of the same story to different people and squirmed when questioned by police.

Mr Hicks, of St Blazey, Cornwall, originally told police Cooper had flown out of his arms and landed on the other side of the room.

He later claimed he had tripped and landed on top of the child. Mr Hicks then told psychiatric nurse Elizabeth Evans he had been drinking with Ms Johnson at home and tripped carrying Cooper as danced to cheer up the crying children.

In a statement read out at the inquest Ms Evans said: 'He sobbed and said he and his partner were at home with his children and he was making some milk for Cooper.

'Both children were crying and he was trying to cheer them up. He was pretending to be an aeroplane and dancing.

'Tristan said: "It’s all my fault, all my fault. Life will never be the same. But later, during a police interview, Mr Hicks denied that version of events.

He said: 'I wasn’t dancing at the time. I got the stuff out and carried it all down from the car, then I got Cooper because he was crying. I got a bottle and went back but tripped on the Moses basket.

'I picked him up straight away and he seemed fine. I picked him up thinking "s***, s***, s***".'

The transcript of a police interview with Tristan was read out during the inquest in Truro, Cornwall.