A woman accused of burning a child with a hot iron has told a court she did not discover the wound until the next day and the youngster did not make any noise when it happened.
Coral Chalmers denies causing the boy to suffer severe injury by using an iron to burn his leg in Dundee between November 28 and 30 2019.
In the second day of the trial, visibly emotional Chalmers told jurors at Dundee Sheriff Court she felt “horrible” about the child’s injury but said she did not deliberately injure him.
The 22-year-old claims the youngster was briefly burned on the cooker as she juggled holding him with trying to reach for a kitchen cupboard.
During her evidence, Chalmers said the child did not make a noise and she did not discover the triangular-shaped burn mark on him until the following morning.
She claimed she did not use the iron recovered at the scene at any point when the child was with her.
Chalmers originally told doctors and police the child had brushed against the cooker, which had been used 45 minutes earlier.
During her evidence she said that she could not remember if she had actually turned the cooker off.
However, fiscal depute Stewart Duncan said Chalmers was lying about her version of events and encouraged the jury to return a guilty verdict at the conclusion of the trial.
Mr Duncan said: “The accused’s recollection of events does not add up because she is not telling the truth.
“I am asking you to disregard her account.
“When you consider the shape of that injury to the shape of the cooker and consider the expert evidence, the conclusion is that, beyond reasonable doubt, the accused is guilty.”
Jury urged to acquit
Douglas Thomson, defending, told the court: “This is a young woman who was 20-years-old at the time of this.
“She had no intention whatsoever to injure the child and the evidence does not show that she intentionally assaulted the child.
“The appropriate verdict would be one of acquittal.”
The court was previously told how paediatric expert Dr Jenny Fraser concluded that the injury sustained by the boy was “non-accidental” given its triangular shape.
Chalmers was asked by Mr Duncan as to why she did not see any mark on the child when the doctors concluded that the injury would result in an immediate mark.
She replied: “There was no mark when I checked him over. It’s true. I know what happened.”
Chalmers denies the single charge she faces on indictment and the trial before Sheriff Alastair Carmichael continues.
