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A mother has tearfully described giggling at what she thought was her toddler experiencing "night terrors", only to learn her twitching was the result of a serious brain injury.
The child's life-threatening injury, allegedly suffered at the hands of her mother's boyfriend when she was only 17 months old, has left her brain damaged.
The prosecution says the toddler was aggressively shaken or slammed against a soft surface, but the defence says the child accidentally fell.
In the first day of the Christchurch District Court trial of the 25-year-old man yesterday, the mother told of her boyfriend having taken her daughter into "time out" in a bedroom of his home, and later bringing her out into the lounge in his arms.
"I just let him bring her in and put her on the couch because she seemed to be still asleep," the woman told the court.
"She was having, like, the night terrors. It was like she was half-asleep and half-awake.
"I didn't really think anything of it. We sort of laughed and giggled about it because we thought it was cute."
The toddler was making "little moans" and gripping her hands together. Her mother then picked her up.
"Her head flopped back and then I realised there was something wrong. (She) wasn't conscious."
The toddler was rushed by ambulance to Christchurch Hospital, and underwent emergency neurosurgery to relieve pressure on her brain, before being transferred to Auckland's Starship Hospital.
Prosecutor Zannah Johnston said in addition to the brain injury, bruises were found across her body.
Without surgery that day, on October 25, 2006, there was no doubt the child would have died, Ms Johnston said.
The accused man's lawyer, Richard Maguire, told the court there was "every possibility" the child's injuries were the result of a fall, and no criminal act occurred.
The mother said her boyfriend told her her daughter must have hurt herself after falling off the bed.
He had offered to take her daughter to time out after she had been playing up much of the day, and leaving the mother "stressed and flustered".
She had let her boyfriend, a father himself, take her daughter to the bedroom because she trusted him.
She had gone outside to hang out washing and have a cigarette before coming back inside and finding her daughter unconscious.
The accused faces a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, or alternatively with reckless disregard for the child's safety. The jury trial is expected to last seven days.
