A father on trial over the death of his baby daughter told a court he saw the child’s mother “slam” her into a changing mat two days before she died.
Lee Davison, 28, told a jury Jessica Hopkinson, 19, handled baby Kristal roughly as she became angry when he refused to have sex.
Davison and Hopkinson are on trial at Leeds Crown Court charged with causing or allowing the death of seven-week-old Kristal. They both plead not guilty.
Kristal died in hospital hours after paramedics were called to the couple’s home on Ashleigh Avenue, Pontefract, on Thursday April 12 last year.
Giving evidence yesterday, Davison told the jury the couple had rowed on the Tuesday evening before Kristal’s death about him refusing to have sex with Hopkinson following the birth.
He said: “She was always thinking that because I wouldn’t do anything with her I was always cheating or talking to women upstairs in the CB (radio) and that’s what caused the argument at the time.”
Davison said Hopkinson lost her temper and “slammed” Kristal as she was changing her.
Davison’s barrister Peter Griffiths QC asked: “Can you put how it happened into the context of the argument?”
He replied: “While I was downstairs Jessica was arguing with me in the living room. At the time we were arguing she was in the middle of changing Kristal. She slammed Kristal into the changing mat. I went mad at her and started shouting and bawling at her for doing wrong.”
He added: “She bounced the baby’s head on the changing mat while still having Kristal’s legs in her hands.”
The court has heard Kristal suffered violent episodes before her death which left her with “catastrophic” injuries to her brain and body, a jury heard.
A post mortem revealed she had suffered episodes of trauma during previous weeks.
Davison told the court how he first met Hopkinson in April 2011 at Pontefract Job Centre. They lived together at Davison’s bedsit in Hemsworth before moving to the house in Pontefract when Hopkinson became pregnant.
Mr Griffiths asked: “How did you feel about the fact that she was having a baby.” He replied: “At the time there was a bit of pressure there because it happened too quickly.”
Proceeding