A FATHER has gone on trial accused of injuring his baby’s brain and breaking her ribs.

The 31-year-old York man claims the injuries happened while he was having epileptic fits, a York jury has heard.

But consultant paediatricians called by the prosecution dispute his claim and say in their opinion the injuries are too severe and couldn’t have been caused by someone unaware of what he was doing.

Dr Fraser Alexander alleged of the defence claim: “I have great difficulty in accepting that. It just doesn’t ring true at all.

“For a number of reasons, I find the explanation as given by (the father) as not feasible and not capable of providing sufficient force.”

The father, who is not being named to protect the identity of the child, denies two charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The mother told the jury at York Crown Court she and the father had been together for three years.

She said her partner phoned her to come home immediately when she was having a coffee at her sister’s house nearby.

She hurried home to find her baby bleeding from her mouth with bloodstained clothes.

“She was screaming hysterically, then she kept going lifeless in my hands,” alleged the mother.

In her opening, prosecution barrister Caroline Wigin alleged the father told doctors at York Hospital the baby had been coughing.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Fraser Alexander alleged an ulcer in the baby’s mouth seen by doctors that day could have been caused by someone ramming a bottle into the baby’s mouth.

A baby would “scream” if its ribs were broken, he claimed.

He claimed two of the broken ribs were almost certainly caused by someone squeezing the baby hard with both hands.

The mother alleged that six weeks after the hospital visit, she returned from a birthday party to find her baby crying in a “piercing” way with a lump on her head.

She claimed the father told her the family dogs had knocked a milk bottle and a saucer with a candle on it onto the baby while he was asleep.

The jury heard the baby was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where doctors found two skull fractures, internal brain injuries, two new rib fractures and two healing rib fractures.

Consultant radiologist Dr Amaka Offiah of the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Children’s Hospital alleged it was very difficult to spot rib fractures on X-rays until they started to heal.

After reviewing the medical evidence she gave her opinion that there had been “at least four separate applications of excessive force on at least two separate occasions” to the baby.

Earlier, consultant Dr Stavros Stivaros, of the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, alleged: “I don’t see how a saucer and candle could explain all the injuries.”

His opinion was that the two skull fractures were caused by two separate applications of force to the head.

The trial continues.