A young mum accused of covering up her baby’s death by taking her on a bus wept as she told how she found the little girl “cold” and “still” in bed.

The prosecution allege Rosalin Baker alerted shocked commuters on the 25 bus on September 28 last year that something was wrong with her baby in an attempt to conceal the truth of what had happened at home.

Giving evidence, she told the court how she was trapped in a controlling and abusive relationship with cocaine and heroin addict Jeffrey Wiltshire, father of three-month-old Imani.

She said that she woke up to find the little girl lying at the bottom of the bed she shared with Wiltshire in Morris Avenue, Manor Park, and got up to make a bottle of milk and called to her baby.

She told jurors at the Old Bailey: “I was calling her and then I walked over to her and looked at her and she was still. I touched her and she was cold.

“When I looked at Imani she had a big black eye.

“When I saw her I started screaming. I called Jeffrey and woke him up.”

Baker began weeping in the witness box and trial judge Nicholas Hilliard QC called for a break.

Earlier, Baker told the court that heroin and cocaine addict Wiltshire took drugs every day, would control their benefits payments and would beat and threaten her.

Between September 19 and the day of Imani’s death, she did not notice anything wrong with her child, although she said the baby would scream and cry when she was left alone with Wiltshire.

She said: “The only time I was a bit concerned was when I went out shopping and I came back and I heard her scream.”

Of her abusive partner, she said: “When he got his drugs he’s fine, he’s smoking dope. When he’s not smoking his drugs he’s angry, abusing me. He was upset and angry about the drugs.

“There was a night that he could not have drugs. He woke me up saying his stomach was hurting and he was in a lot of pain and needed something to smoke. He told me to go and look for some money. I said I’m not getting up. He started hitting me saying I’m evil.”

Asked how he was towards Imani, Baker said: “In front of me, he was fine.”

On the day of Imani’s death, Baker said she had not taken any cocaine or heroin herself although she could not remember if she had taken drugs the day before.

Imani, who was born prematurely and put on the child protection register, was allegedly subjected to at least three severe attacks which left her with 40 fractures to her ribs, a fractured wrist and terrible head injuries.

Baker and Wiltshire deny murder and causing or allowing the death of their child.

The trial continues.