Mother 'confronted partner' over toddler's bruises
Supplied- Warning: This story contains distressing details
A mother accused of murdering her daughter told police she confronted her new partner about bruises on the child's body, a court has heard.
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.
In a transcript of a police interview read to Teesside Crown Court, Walker said Simpson told her he would never hurt the child and she had injured herself during a tantrum.
She told police she had taken a 20-minute shower, leaving the girl downstairs with Simpson, and later discovered bruising "dotted all over her body and her face".
She told an officer: "I said to him, 'she's in a right state, have you been heavy handed with her?'
"He looked quite upset and said 'no'."
'Worst day'
Walker said she had met Simpson about a month earlier through Facebook dating.
She said: "He seemed a genuine lad, he made an effort with Isabelle.
"It never occurred to me he could hurt her and it's very frightening to me that this could be a possibility.
"He seemed to have a very calm nature that would never harm anybody."
She told police Simpson went out with a friend and she later became alarmed at her daughter's decline, which she said was "the worst day of my life".
The court heard that led to her calling an ambulance to their two-bedroom flat in Thornaby, telling them her daughter was not responding.
The prosecution says paramedics found Isabelle collapsed at the foot of the stairs without a pulse on 13 September, covered in bruises.
She died in hospital next day, which the prosecution alleges was a result of being violently shaken, her spine over-extended, and her head hit against a hard surface such as a wall or the floor.
The prosecution previously told jurors both Walker and Simpson had "ample opportunity" to harm the toddler and "each must have been aware of the abuse."
The trial continues.
