THE man accused of killing Singleton toddler Jordan William Thompson said he found the little boy lying face down in the bath the afternoon of his death, nearly 20 years ago.
He didn't know how there came to be antidepressants found in the child's system, Cecil Patrick Kennedy told police on April 19, 2005, a month after Jordan's death.
Police told Mr Kennedy during a videotaped walk through of his unit that day, that during a search of his home, they found antidepressants, brand name Endep, in a wardrobe in his bedroom.
He told police he had been prescribed that medication about 15 months earlier to help him sleep, but stopped taking them not long after he started seeing Jordan's mother, Bernice Swales.
Asked to describe what kind of effect the tablets had on him, Mr Kennedy said it "relaxes you up".
Police also asked him if he could explain how the 21-month-old boy came to have Endep in his system.
"I don't know how he could've done it," Mr Kennedy said
"I don't know how it got in there."
That evidence was put to a Sydney District Court jury today (Monday, August 19) where the video was replayed during Mr Kennedy's trial.
Mr Kennedy is accused of dosing the toddler with an antidepressant some time during the 24 hours of his death, either causing his death directly, or contributing to his death by drowning.
The jury has heard there were traces of antidepressant found in the bath water in which Mr Kennedy had bathed Jordan, as well as in the vomit on the clothes that Jordan had been wearing earlier that day.
Mr Kennedy has pleaded not guilty to one count of manslaughter, denying he gave the toddler any medication and left him alone in the bath for just about a minute.
Mr Kennedy shifted the focus from himself to the boy's father and the father's family, saying about them that, 'They're on a lot of pills up there'.
The little boy also used to go to the house of a neighbour of his father's, who had overdosed on pills.
"They're a real funny family and I think if something's gone on up there ...," Mr Kennedy said.
Jordan was "just never himself" when he returned to his mother after visiting his father, Mr Kennedy said.
The jury also heard a police recorded interview with a child who was home with Mr Kennedy just before Jordan's death.
The child told police during that 2005 interview that he was playing 'Olympics' on the play station in the lounge room when the other kids went with Ms Swales to the shops, except for Jordan who was asleep in a bedroom, and Mr Kennedy.
He and Mr Kennedy were playing play station before Mr Kennedy went in the bedroom where Jordan was sleeping because he'd woken up.
Mr Kennedy told him that Jordan had wet the bed and he'd put him in the bath before Mr Kennedy came out to watch him playing for "about five minutes", the child said.
Mr Kennedy said he found Jordan floating upside down in the bath and had called him in to the room.
"[He] said 'come here' and I went in there and [he] was resuscitating him," he said.
"He said 'get me a wet washer', so I did."
He said Mr Kennedy was attempting to resuscitate the child for about 10 minutes before Bernice arrived home.
"She snatched him out of [Mr Kennedy's] hands and ran to the hospital with him," he said..
Last week the jury heard evidence from the boy's mother, Ms Swales, who was 21 years old at the time of Jordan's death, as well as from a former nurse, Jodie Frost, who was the first health care professional to come to the aid of Ms Swales as she carried her lifeless toddler through the doors of Singleton Hospital nearly 20 years ago.
The trial, before Judge Craig Smith SC, continues.
