A boyfriend accused of torturing and murdering a 15-month-old baby pinned down and assaulted his partner as their relationship deteriorated, a court heard.

Jacob Lennon is alleged to have suffered horrendous long-term abuse at his family home in Putney, southwest London, before he was taken to hospital with fatal head injuries on 27 August 2019.

The boy’s mother, Louise Lennon, 32, and Jake Drummond, 33, her partner, both face charges arising from Jacob’s death.

Drummond denies murdering Jacob and a further charge of wounding the baby with intent in relation to earlier injuries, which include one caused to the genitals with a sharp object.

Lennon denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a child.

Jake Drummond, 33, denies murdering Jacob and a further charge of wounding the baby with intent in relation to earlier injuries

Jacob Lennon is alleged to have suffered horrendous long-term abuse at his family home in Putney, southwest London, before he was taken to hospital with fatal head injuries on 27 August 2019

Louise Lennon, 32, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and cruelty to a child

Today Lennon told jurors at the Old Bailey that she met Drummond when she was 15 and he was 16.

She reconnected with him via Facebook after moving to the Putney area in June 2019.

Jane Bickerstaff, defending Lennon, said: ‘The police, in the course of their investigation have looked to get as much information as they could from your telephone, so it rather looks as if it was beginning of June when communications between the two of you began?’

Lennon replied: ‘Yeah, I think I was asking him to bring me a joint.’

‘Why would you be asking him about that?’ said Ms Bickerstaff.

‘I knew he would be dealing [drugs]’ replied Lennon.

‘So, you contacted him for that purpose?’ continued Ms Bickerstaff.

‘Yep,’ said Lennon.

‘What did you think about him when he came back into your life?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

Lennon replied: ‘He was really nice, always talking about his girls. He told me he had worked in a nursery.’

Ms Bickerstaff asked: ‘How did he treat you?’

‘Very nice,’ replied Lennon.

Father-of-two Drummond was still seeing Julie Sanders when his relationship with Lennon began in late June 2019, the court heard.

‘Did you know that he was in a relationship with Julie Sanders?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff

Lennon replied: ‘Not at all, no.

‘He just told me he had split up from her in previous months and he wasn’t with her [anymore]’ Lennon replied.

‘So, it’s not just that you didn’t know he was in a relationship with her, you actually thought he wasn’t from what he had told you?’ said Ms Bickerstaff.

‘Yes,’ replied Lennon

The relationship between Drummond and Lennon began to change after her birthday at the beginning of August 2019, the court heard.

‘In general he would ask me if I was seeing anyone else or accuse me of doing things,’ she said.

‘Had that not happened before this?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘No,’ replied Lennon.

‘Did you know why he had started asking you if you were seeing anyone else?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘After my birthday I thought it was just because I told him I had gone out….. he might have thought I was with someone else,’ said Lennon

‘Were you being unfaithful to your relationship with Jake Drummond by having other relationships at the same time as him?’ Ms Bickerstaff asked.

Lennon replied: ‘No’.

‘Did he ever say anything to you which indicated he thought you were?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.’

‘He said he saw messages on my phone,’ replied Lennon.

She told the court she believed Drummond gained access to her telephone during the night and blocked numbers from her contact list, including the number of her ex-boyfriends.

‘Did you ever do it on reverse and spy on his phone?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘I’ve never been on his phone once,’ replied Lennon.

‘You said he had started asking you these questions around your birthday… did his behaviour change generally in relation to you?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘Yes,’ replied Lennon.

‘In what way?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff

Lennon replied: ‘He seemed more agitated and aggressive… he was taking more drugs, he wasn’t sleeping.’

She told jurors how Drummond began to abuse her, saying: ‘It turned more physically abusive, he used to basically always have an opinion on my parenting and stuff like that.

‘He hit me, he pinned me down.’

Ms Bickerstaff said: ‘We can see from the schedule that although it may have lessened in volume there are still, across this entire time, messages from you to Mr Drummond telling him you love him, complimenting him, calling him ‘baby’ and other terms of endearment, why?’

Lennon said: ‘That was my way of keeping him sweet, keeping him happy I didn’t want him to get aggressive,’ Lennon replied

‘Why didn’t you just end it?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘I was very intimidated by him I was just scared, I had never felt like that before… when I was with him I don’t know, it was hard. I didn’t know how to get away,’ Lennon replied.

Lennon said she awoke to find Jacob with a large bruise on his forehead on the morning of August 16, 2019.

She walked into her son’s bedroom to find Drummond already there, claiming Jacob had fallen out of bed.

Lennon said the bruising covering his ‘whole forehead’.

‘Presumably you said something when you saw this?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘I said, ‘what happened to his head?’

She said Drummond continued to claim Jacob had fallen out of bed.

‘Did you believe and accept Mr Drummond’s explanation?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘I did, yes,’ replied Lennon

‘Were there any other surrounding circumstances that led you to be concerned?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

Lennon replied: ‘No’

Four days later Lennon said she again found Drummond in her son’s bedroom and he claimed he had woken up to find Jacob banging his head on the floor.

‘Had you ever seen Jacob banging his own head on anything?’ asked Ms Bickerstaff.

‘No,’ replied Lennon.

‘Did you accept this explanation?’ said Ms Bickerstaff.

‘Yes, I didn’t think anyone would hurt him’ replied Lennon.

‘Did you think in fact Mr Drummond was lying to you and he was responsible for doing this to your son?’ Ms Bickerstaff continued.

‘Not at the time, no,’ replied Lennon.

Lennon said on the night before Jacob’s death she went to bed at 1am.

She claimed she had no idea why Snapchat messages were sent between her and Drummond’s phone between 2.12 and 2.24am.

‘I don’t know why I’d be messaging him when he’s just sitting at the end of my bed,’ she said.

Crying as she gave her evidence, Lennon said she awoke to Drummond running into the room holding Jacob.

‘He brought Jacob into the room in his arms, telling me to call an ambulance because his lips were turning blue.

‘He was holding him like he was serving him to me, not holding his head,’ she said, holding out two flat hands to demonstrate.

‘He was saying ‘babe, babe, call an ambulance.’

She said Jacob looked floppy and unconscious.

Lennon then phoned an ambulance and Drummond gave Jacob CPR. Lennon said Jacob began to be sick as Drummond pressed down on his chest.

She accepted she made untrue statements to police and ambulance following the incident by suggesting that Jacob had fallen from his bed, saying that she just repeated what Drummond said to her as she was in a state of shock.

She said she felt heartbroken when she found out that Jacob was dead, an hour after he arrived at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.

She said she returned to the police station two days later to tell them what really happened.

‘I’d been in a state of shock. But then two days later I realised what had happened, that my son had been murdered. I had to go back and tell them. I had to do it for Jacob.’

She said she has since found out that Drummond had strangled his former partner Julie Sanders.

‘Mr Drummond has told this jury that you killed your own child, what do you want to say about that?’ Ms Bickerstaff asked.

‘I wouldn’t even dream of doing that,’ Lennon replied.

‘He said you were a bad mother,’ Ms Bickerstaff said.

‘It’s all BS (sic). That’s just not me. He’s taken everything away from me, there is nothing more he can take away from me.

‘I was always making sure Jacob was okay, I was always trying to keep an eye on him.

She said she always believed what he told her and she never feared he would cause harm to her child.

Drummond, of no fixed address, denies murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Lennon, of Ingrave Street, Wandsworth, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and child cruelty.

The trial, at the Old Bailey, continues.