Mother denies taking out frustrations on toddler
SuppliedWarning: This story contains distressing details
A mother accused with her boyfriend of murdering her young daughter has told a court she "got frustrated being a parent at times" but insisted she "never took it out" on the toddler.
Two-year-old Isabelle Welsh collapsed at home in Thornaby, near Middlesbrough, having suffered a "massive head injury" in September last year. She died in hospital the following day.
Her mother Alexandra Walker, 25, and her partner Harrison Simpson, 22, deny murder, allowing the death of a child, sexual assault and child cruelty.
Prosecutors at Teesside Crown Court say Isabelle was physically and sexually abused and was found to have suffered 21 broken bones in the weeks before she died.
Giving evidence, Walker denied she had ever shaken Isabelle, banged her against a wall or fractured her arm, leg, spine or skull.
She said if she had seen anyone being violent towards her daughter she would have "kicked them out of my house and phoned the police".
Walker told jurors the suggestion she had sexually abused Isabelle, or encouraged anyone to, had "absolutely destroyed" her and said her daughter was "the person who meant most to me in the world".
'Pressured' into dealing
She said she had been trying to wean Isabelle off her dummy at the time of her death and the girl had been "more whingey than usual".
Walker said: "I admit I got frustrated being a parent at times but I never took it out on my daughter."
She told the court she had been in abusive relationships before, including one with Isabelle's father, and her confidence was "not good" when she met Simpson.
Walker said he knew from her dating profile she had a child and initially treated her "nicely" and her daughter "kindly".
She told jurors Simpson had pressured her to sell cannabis and at one point she stabbed herself with a knife to "get out of selling drugs".
Walker said Isabelle's health deteriorated after she met Simpson, but she did not think he would harm her when he was alone with her.
Asked who was most important to her between her daughter and her boyfriend, she replied: "Isabelle."
Nicholas Lumley KC, defending Simpson, earlier told the court his client would not be giving evidence.
The trial continues.
