A NURSE told how she noticed bruises on face of a toddler as she tried to resuscitate her.
Roberta Mansfield, a nursing sister at Basildon Hospital, said Aimee Collins was not breathing and had no heart rate when she arrived at the hospital on December 6, 2005.
Ms Mansfield said as she attempted to resuscitate the 19-month-old child she saw bruises on her jaw, forehead, under her eye and nose.
It was only after tests confirmed Aimee was brain dead and the ventilator was turned off in the early hours of December 7 2005 that Ms Mansfield discovered a bruise on her lower back.
On cross examination by Michael Topolski, counsel for the defence, Ms Mansfield accepted the bruises could have been caused by staff as they worked to save Aimee.
She also said she recalled Colin Kendrick, who had been caring for Aimee at the home he shared with her mother Sarah-Jane Collins and her children in Eden Green, South Ockendon, on the night she died, crying at the end of her empty hospital bed.
Ms Mansfield added: "I can remember being aware of a man at the end of the bed. He appeared to be upset and crying."
Kendrick, 31, denies murder.
The trial at Basildon Crown Court continues.
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