Parents pay tribute to their beautiful baby boy after coroner concludes sudden death in Bishop Auckland was from natural causes

Michaela Hammond, 16 and Nathan Kitch, 15, were left devastated when their son Roman Lee Kitch died in February.

At an inquest into his death at Crook Coroners Court on Tuesday, assistant coroner Oliver Longstaff heard how the emergency services rushed to Miss Hammond’s Bishop Auckland home on the morning of February 15, after her mother, Kimberly Welsh, discovered Roman Lee non-responsive on his mother’s bed.

Detective Inspector Yvonne Dutson, of Durham Constabulary’s South Durham Safeguarding Unit, told the court how Mrs Welsh had found Roman Lee with a duvet partially covering his face.

It later emerged that Miss Hammond had fed Roman Lee in the night before placing him in the middle of the bed and pulling the duvet up to his knees.

She then lay on the end of the bed and was using her phone but fell asleep.

Miss Hammond was not aware anything was wrong until her mother woke her and raised the alarm the next morning.

DI Dutson said: “I was satisfied from the evidence we had that there was certainly nothing criminal to be investigated.”

Miss Hammond and Mr Kitch were joined by her sister Kya Clough, Mrs Welsh and her husband David and the women sobbed as DI Dutson confirmed Roman Lee was a “very well cared for baby”.

Consultant perinatal and paediatric pathologist at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Hospital, Dr Srinivas Annavarapu, also confirmed he could not find a cause of death as all post mortem tests had come back negative.

The only abnormality found was some tiny haemorrhages in the lungs but he could not confirm Roman Lee had suffocated as other tell-tales signs were missing.

He said he would have been able to give a cause of death as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome but was prevented from doing so because Roman Lee was not in his own moses basket.

Mr Longstaff said he was happy to accept Roman Lee had suffered from an a-typical type of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, saying it was an unexplained, sudden unexpected death in childhood.

He said Roman Lee’s death was a “tragedy” and hard for any parents but even harder for Miss Hammond and Mr Kitch as children themselves.

He said: “The distress of such a loss is something that you should not be expected to have to bear at the age Michaela and Nathan are and it’s a cruel thing to happen to them.”

He added: “The evidence is absolutely clear – there’s not a suggestion of harm being done to Roman Lee.”

He returned a formal conclusion of natural causes.

Speaking after the conclusion, Miss Hammond said it was “very scary” having a baby so young but the couple enjoyed being parents and Roman Lee was a “good baby”.

She said: “Roman Lee is a big miss for everybody.

"It would have been his first birthday next month. He had a beautiful smile and bright blue eyes.”