A man accused of stomping on his partner's toddler became enraged after the girl urinated on his couch, a court has heard. The two-year-old girl died of severe internal injuries, including "blunt force injury to the abdomen," hours after the alleged attack in May 2005, the Supreme Court heard on Monday. The girl arrived at a medical centre about 3pm that day, unresponsive, with a large bruise on her forehead, dilated pupils and no pulse, the court heard. She also had a number of differently coloured bruises on her chest and abdomen. Paramedics tried to resuscitate her but realised within minutes that attempts to revive her were futile. Mussie Debresay, 37, has pleaded not guilty to her murder and manslaughter, and said that she had fallen in his living room the night before she died. Prosecutor Sally Flynn told the court on the first day of Mr Debresay's trial that the girl's brother, who cannot be named, had witnessed the alleged attack. Ms Flynn said the boy had told police and family members a number of times during the following decade that Mr Debresay had hurt his sister, who had been sick and had "done wee wee on the couch and was naughty". A month after the toddler died, a police officer interviewed the boy, asking what Mr Debresay had done. Ms Flynn said the boy responded with a gesture: "He stamped his foot on the ground". Last year, 10 years after his sister's death, the boy reiterated that Mr Debresay was to blame, saying "he could remember (her) screaming in the kitchen, bleeding...yelling that her back was hurting". Ms Flynn said that Mr Debresay had told police after the girl's death that he had heard her hit her head the night before. He had also woken to a "bump", and found her lying on her stomach in the living room under the coffee table. Mr Debresay's lawyer, Dermot Dann QC, said his client had never assaulted the girl "in any way, at any time. He did not step over her, kick her, head-butt her, he did not put a bag on her face as described. Any evidence that (he was) seen to do so is heavily in dispute". Mr Dann said that the boy was the only person who had ever suggested Mr Debresay had killed his sister, and that there were issues with his testimony related to "reliability, credibility, accuracy and consistency". Certain aspects of the boy's evidence were "demonstrably wrong", he said. "The defence case is (the accused) had no intention to cause injury or death in any way...we ask you to of course...consider all these issues with an open mind." Ms Flynn said that the victim's DNA had been found on bloodied rags in Mr Debresay's kitchen, and that a soiled pillow cover was also found in his flat after she died. She said the girl's injuries were deliberately caused, and "inflicted by someone who was very angry, someone who lost his temper." Medical experts would testify in the trial that the toddler's fatal injuries had been caused about two hours before her death and were unlikely to have been sustained in an accident or a fall. One doctor who had examined the girl's injuries, including to her genitals, would say that "One means of inflicting such force...would be an adult standing or stomping on this child's abdomen," Ms Flynn said. The girl's mother - who has not been charged over her death - told police that she had "no idea" what had caused it and denied causing the injuries herself. The trial continues.

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