SHE was stressed about a violent ex getting out of jail, exhausted from looking after a "clingy" and "sooky" toddler and had run out of cigarettes.
But the mother of a 20-month-old girl who died after suffering multiple fatal and non-accidental injuries, likely caused by a number of punches or kicks, has denied that she "snapped" and harmed the little girl in any way. The girl's mother gave evidence for a second day during the murder trial of Timothy Andrew Whiteley in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday.
Mr Whiteley, now 28, has pleaded not guilty to murder over the death of the toddler, who cannot be identified.
The young girl died about 6pm on June 19, 2018, after suffering multiple injuries, including bleeding to the brain, broken ribs, a collapsed lung, lacerations to her liver and bleeding in her abdominal cavity.
There is no disagreement in the trial that the girl died from non-accidental injuries during a time frame when both Mr Whiteley and the girl's mother were at the home.
Under cross-examination from Public Defender Peter Krisenthal, the woman acknowledged that, around the time of her daughter's death, an ex-partner's release from jail and possible re-appearance in her life was causing her "significant distress".
The woman also said her daughter had been sick and "clingy" for a number of weeks and was also typically a "poor sleeper", often waking up between five and 10 times a night.
"If you were around she wanted you," Mr Krisenthal suggested. "If she was having trouble sleeping it had to be you. That put a significant amount of pressure on you, didn't it? It wasn't the case where you could leave the kids and give yourself a couple of hours to yourself."
The woman agreed, but denied those combination of factors had caused her to "snap" and hurt the girl.
The woman also denied deleting a three-month block of texts, calls and data from her phone.
The woman, who has been charged with manslaughter by gross criminal negligence over her daughter's death, denied downplaying the deterioration in the girl's condition to try to assist her case.
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