‘Stench
from home
led police
to body of
dead baby’

Jodie Dunsmore, who is now a police officer, told a jury yesterday she knew “something was definitely not right” at Amanda Hutton’s house in Bradford in September 2011.

Pc Dunsmore, who was called Worsley at the time, was only on her second day as a full PCSO when she began investigating a neighbour’s complaint about the property.

She told the jury how she went back again and again, over a number of days, to knock on the door but got no reply.

Pc Dunsmore said she became even more suspicious when she noticed large numbers of flies on the window ledge and a terrible smell coming through the letter box.

After at least five visits, she and a colleague threatened to kick in the door, despite having no such legal power as PCSOs. And at that point Hutton opened the door.

Pc Dunsmore told the court Hutton looked “dreadful”.

“Her hair was all matted and she was looking very unkempt. She had a woollen jumper on and it appeared flies were coming off her jumper.”

The officer said Hutton, who “had a look of fear on her face”, would not let her in.

“There was a vile smell of filth radiating from the door,” she added. “I’d not even got to the end of the path before I’d rung social services. Something was definitely not right.”

A jury at Bradford Crown Court has heard how Hamzah Khan was found in a cot in Amanda Hutton’s bedroom later that day by police. He had been dead for almost two years.

Hutton denies manslaughter.

Pc Dunsmore told the jury she had persevered because “it was my gut feeling that something was wrong” and she believed Hutton was “hiding something”.

One of the first police officers to enter the four-bedroom terrace told the court about the terrible state of the house.

Pc Jane Lax tried to get to the cellar but had to leave retching due to the smell from ankle-deep rubbish.

She said that when she first went inside there was a “horrendous smell” of “foul rotten waste”.

The officer said Hutton told her she was an alcoholic and at one point told her that Hamzah was in Portsmouth.

Pc Lax did not find the body but later had a call in the police car telling her about the grim discovery. Hutton then told her Hamzah had died on December 15, 2009.

The case continues.