On the authority of the Crown Prosecution Service a man was charged last night, Wednesday 7 December, with the murder of 11-month Crystal Hall-Hummel at an address in Nursery Lane, Worthing, on Friday 13 May.
 
Jerome Edwards, 27, unemployed, of Bridgefield Close, Midhurst, will appear in custody at Worthing Magistrates' Court this morning.
 
Edwards was arrested at his Midhurst address yesterday morning by detectives from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team who have been investigating the death.
 
The investigation began on the afternoon of Saturday 14 May this year after Crystal, of Christchurch Road, Worthing, died in St Thomas's Hospital, London, having been transferred there from Worthing Hospital on the previous day.
 
Paramedics had been called to an address in Nursery Lane, Worthing, at 9.56am on Friday 13 May and resuscitated the baby who had stopped breathing. She was taken to Worthing Hospital, from where she was collected by a specialist team from St Thomas's Hospital in London. She arrived in London shortly after 4.30pm on Friday and was pronounced dead at 3.05pm on Saturday.
 
At 5.04pm a man was arrested at St Thomas's by Sussex detectives on suspicion of murder and was returned to Sussex for questioning. On the Sunday evening he was released on police bail.
 
A post mortem was carried out on Monday 16 May by a Home Office pathologist and a specialist paediatric pathologist. The provisional cause of death was given as head injury and after further detailed and expert analysis by doctors specialising in infant head injury, it has been established that death was caused by internal head injuries. These are described as comprising Rotational Acceleration Decceleration Impact [RADI]. There were slight external injuries to the head but these did not contribute to the death.
 
Bail had been extended until 20 January next year but the arrest has been made now because of receipt of the further forensic analysis.

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