Son of ex-town MP denies using family links in trial

Stephen Waterson, 25, from Croydon, allegedly twice pushed his car seat into three-year-old Alfie Lamb in the footwell behind, causing his death by crush asphyxia.

In the days after Alfie’s death last February, he went on to threaten his girlfriend and others to make them stay quiet about what happened, the Old Bailey heard. And in an interview with police, the nightclub worker name-dropped his father Nigel Waterson, a former minister and lawyer, jurors were told.

Stephen Waterson and Alfie’s mother Adrian Hoare, 23, have denied manslaughter but have pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice by making false statements to police.

Under cross-examination, Katy Thorne QC, for Hoare, suggested Waterson told police he had ‘powerful parents’. She said, “In that interview you used the fact you have got powerful parents, it seems to you, because you like to drop it into conversation all the time. You befriend vulnerable people and you are exerting your will over them, making them feel special, and what you do Mr Waterson is you used the fact that your parents are powerful people to make you untouchable.”

Waterson replied, “I’m not untouchable.”

Ms Thorne went on, “You like it to be known your father is a lawyer don’t you? You would say that your father is an important person, not just a lawyer but he used to be a government minister and you were so powerful because you had these connections.”

Waterson replied, “I don’t know why this is relevant and we are talking about my parents. I’ve never used my parents to control anyone.”

Nigel Waterson was Eastbourne’s MP from 1992-2010.

The trial continues.