A man accused of murdering his six-month-old baby daughter admitted to gardai that he punched the infant three times after he "snapped" because she would not stop crying.
Mr Fergus Whitty (31) said in a statement after his arrest that he hit the child in the face and stomach before she jerked out of his arms and fell on to the floor in their Cork home.
Mr Whitty is denying the murder of the baby, Vanessa Kelly, at the apartment in Mount Vernon Crescent, South Douglas Road, in Cork, on September 15th last year. He admits, however, that he assaulted his daughter and that as a result she suffered severe injuries which resulted in her death.
Dublin Central Criminal Court was told yesterday how Mr Whitty made the statement to detectives in Togher Garda station, Cork, following his arrest three days after the baby's death.
On the night before her death, she woke up crying and he heated up a bottle for her. He tried to feed her in the cot, but she wouldn't stop crying and he tried to force the bottle into her mouth, the statement said. He picked up the baby and took her into the bathroom. She was still crying and he squeezed her stomach with both hands.
He then hit the baby with his fist in the face and the stomach. He held the child with his left arm and hit her with his closed right fist in the nose - a blow he described as an upper-cut.
Eventually he put his hand over her mouth to stop her crying, but she jerked out of his arms and fell, hitting the cistern and the toilet bowl on the way to the floor.
"I do not know what came over me. I just snapped," said Mr Whitty in the statement. Earlier the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, described how he carried out a post-mortem examination on the dead baby in Cork University Hospital.
He concluded she had died as a result of one or more severe abdominal injuries which led to a massive rupture of her liver and a lesser rupture of her kidney.
She also sustained fractures to her skull, lower jaw and right arm which were contributory factors in her death. Asked how the injuries occurred he replied: "My main interpretation would be that they were due to blows."
The trial continues before Mr Justice Flood and the jury today.