A CONSULTANT pediatrician yesterday told a murder trial at the High

Court in Aberdeen that if a three-month-old baby had survived his

injuries he would have been ''a vegetable''.

Dr Gaynor Cole, 50, was giving evidence in the fourth day of the trial

of Mr Kevin Scott.

Mr Scott, 28, described as a prisoner in Aberdeen, denies murdering

Roderick McMichael at his house in Wellfield Terrace, Aberchirder, last

November.

Mr Scott is alleged to have assaulted Roderick by kicking him on the

body and striking his head against a bed and wall on November 7 last

year whereby he was so severely injured that he died.

Dr Cole said: ''I suspect this little boy had no chance of survival.

If by some method we could have done a better job I think the child

would have been very seriously handicapped,'' she said.

Dr Cole said Roderick would have been ''a vegetable'', being unable to

see, hear, or think.

Pathologist Dr James Grieve told the court the cause of Roderick's

death was severe injury to his brain. It was likely the brain had been

moved violently inside the skull after impact with a solid object. Dr

Grieve agreed this object could have been a wall.

Detective Inspector David Jennings said Mr Scott told him he dozed off

after feeding the baby and was awakened by the child lying on the floor

crying. ''I never thought anything of it,'' Mr Scott said.

He said Mr Scott later admitted he had slapped the child several times

in the past, and had then added: ''I mind giving him a belting at 3.25

in the morning.''

The trial continues