A 17-month-old toddler who suffered brain damage after allegedly been shaken by her mother's boyfriend may have got her injuries in a climbing accident, a court was told today.
Her mother told Christchurch District Court her daughter was always "pushing boundaries, climbing pretty regularly", the Christchurch Court News website reported.
She would pull herself up on the back of the couch and, if the drawers were pulled out on a chest of drawers, she would see that as an opportunity and climb up on them.
The mother's 24-year-old boyfriend denies alternative charges of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to the girl and causing the injuries with reckless disregard for her safety.
The accused man, the toddler and her family all have name suppression.
The crown says the man injured the girl on October 25, 2006, while she was having a "time-out" in a bedroom for being naughty.
The crown is calling 23 witnesses, alleging in its case the Christchurch man shook the girl and slammed her onto a soft surface, causing brain damage.
But the defence signalled on the opening day of the trial on Tuesday that an expert medical witness would be called to give evidence that the injuries could have been received in a fall.
The crown has also said that fingermarks on the girl's chest indicated that she could have been "forcibly grasped" at the time of the alleged shaking.
The girl's mother was cross-examined by defence counsel Richard McGuire about the toddler's climbing ability.
She told of the girl squirming and wriggling out of some of the straps of a carseat on a car trip to Ashburton and then possibly reaching for toys that she had thrown down. She had received a bruise on her thigh from a fall off a ride-on toy.
She also said she had seen the man's own daughter, aged four, grasping the toddler and trying to lift her.
She said she had heard a bang one day and went to her daughter's room to find she had climbed right out of her cot and was on the floor.
An ambulance officer gave evidence of the ambulance having to brake suddenly while the toddler was being rushed to hospital.
He said that he and the man who was later charged had quickly put their hands on the toddler to stop her sliding off the stretcher during the braking.
