Image copyright Family handout

A man accused of crushing his girlfriend's son with his car seat used the fact his father is a former government minister to make himself "untouchable", a court has heard.

Stephen Waterson, 25, is accused of twice pushing the front passenger seat of his Audi convertible into Alfie Lamb, who was in the footwell behind.

The Old Bailey heard he told police he had "powerful parents".

Mr Waterson and Alfie's mother, Adrian Hoare, 23, both deny manslaughter.

The pair were in the car with two other adults, while Alfie and another child sat in the rear footwell during the journey from Sutton to Croydon in south London on 1 February last year.

Jurors heard that in an interview with police, Mr Waterson name-dropped his adoptive father Nigel Waterson, a former MP and lawyer.

Cross-examining Mr Waterson, Ms Hoare's lawyer Katy Thorne QC 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."

She accused Mr Waterson of using "the fact that your parents are powerful people to make you untouchable".

Mr Waterson replied: "I'm not untouchable."

Mr Waterson told the jury he had not deliberately pushed the seat into Alfie after losing his temper but had moved it back no more than an inch, before moving forwards again.

During cross-examining, Ms Thorne said to him: "On your account Mr Waterson, it could not have been the seat that caused his death and you have been framed horribly for Alfie's death."

Mr Waterson replied that it was "correct".

When asked by Ms Thorne how Alfie did die, Mr Waterson told the court: "That's what I want to find out as well."

Mr Waterson said the only thing that happened in the car to Alfie was that he was "being shouted at by Adrian", while Ms Hoare had told him she "blamed herself" for the toddler's death as they later lay in bed together.

When he was asked if he bore any responsibility over the boy's death, he replied that he "should have said something and not put the children in the car in the footwell".

Mr Waterson denies manslaughter and the intimidation of the car's driver Marcus Lamb.

Ms Hoare denies manslaughter, child cruelty and common assault on Emilie Williams, who was also in the car.

The couple and 19-year-old Ms Williams have pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice by making false statements to police.

The trial continues.