Former vicar tells inquest how he tried to revive daughter’s baby after bathroom birth

A FORMER vicar has told an inquest how he tried to revive his daughter’s baby after she gave birth in a bathroom.

James Percival, 66, said he had given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to newborn Jonathan Percival after his daughter Ruth gave birth in the downstairs toilet of the vicarage in Freckleton, Lancashire, in November 2014.

But Miss Percival, 30, said she had not seen him make any attempts to revive the baby.

The inquest into Jonathan’s death was halted last October when the coroner for Blackpool and Fylde, Alan Wilson, decided to refer the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions after a medic stated that the newborn could have survived if resuscitation attempts had been made.

In March, the Crown Prosecution Service said there remained “insufficient evidence” to charge anyone.

Both Mr Percival and his daughter had previously been arrested and questioned on suspicion of child neglect before prosecutors advised police in April 2016 that there was insufficient evidence and to take no further action.

The hearing at Blackpool Town Hall was told that Miss Percival, who has some special educational needs, visited her GP surgery in August 2014 to arrange to terminate a pregnancy, but had been unable to have one because she was too far gone.

She agreed she had put her “head in the sand” about the pregnancy and had not told her parents because she was “scared” of their reaction.

Mr Percival, who at the time was the vicar of Holy Trinity CE Church in Freckleton, said that after Miss Percival returned home from work on the afternoon of November 25 she spent some time in the downstairs toilet.

He said that at about 3.30pm he saw her come out of the bathroom carrying a towel covered with what he believed to be excrement and went outside with her to put the towel in a bin.

The hearing continues.