Accused claims child’s mum held her in freezer

THE MAN accused of injuring a little girl after holding her against her will in a kitchen freezer has told a court: “I would never do that to a kid.”

Stuart Kitt, 33, told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that he didn’t force the four-year-old girl into a household appliance at an address in the city in October 2007.

Speaking on the third day of his trial, Kitt, a prisoner of Saughton, told the court that he wasn’t the man who caused her to suffer painful bruising and burns injuries.

He said: “I did not do that. I would never do that to a kid.”

Kitt denies a charge of assault to severe injury and two charges of failing to attend court whilst on bail in December 2009 and September 2010.

He told defence solicitor Duncan Hughes that he was acting as the little girl’s babysitter on the night of the alleged attack.

Kitt said her mother attended a psychic night in a nearby pub and that he planned to watch Scotland play England in the 2007 Rugby World Cup on the mum’s TV.

Before leaving, Kitt told the court that the mum appeared to be “agitated” and was “shouting” at the girl, who is now aged eight.

He said: “She was shouting ‘stop playing with my make up, stay away from the make up’. She also said ‘stop mucking about with the hair dryer and get an ice lolly.”

During the evening, Kitt claimed the little girl was sick after eating two chocolate aero yogurts.

He said: “The aero yogurt was heavy on her stomach. She got an upset stomach and was sick. I cleaned up with some disinfectant. There was a smell.”

The court heard that Kitt was later arrested in connection with the alleged assault.

But he claimed yesterday that he didn’t take the girl into the freezer and that he thinks it was her mother who was responsible for the attack.

Defence solicitor Duncan Hughes said: “Is that your position?”

Kitt replied: “yes.”

Earlier, the court heard from Aysel Crockett, a consultant paediatrician, who examined the girl three days after the attack happened at Edinburgh’s Sick Children’s Hospital.

Ms Crockett - who now works for NHS Fife - said that the little girl told her that she had been grabbed by the neck and turned upside down before being placed in the freezer by a man called Stuart.

She said: “She said her arms had been placed in the ice box and it was sore. She was also grabbed by the neck and turned upside down.

“She said Stuart did it.”

The senior doctor found burns on the little girl’s forearms, bottom and left foot.

Speaking about the burns on her forearms, Dr Crockett said: “She was crying and distressed. It was difficult to measure appropriately because it caused her great pain.”

When depute procurator fiscal Ian Wallace asked whether the burns on her backside could have been caused by having to sit in a freezer, she said: “yes.”

Dr Crockett also said she and her colleagues agreed that the little girl’s injuries had been caused by a deliberate as opposed to an accidental action.

She said: “We all agreed that this was likely to have been a deliberate injury as opposed to an accidental one.”

When asked by Mr Wallace about whether the little girl could fully recover from the injuries, Dr Crockett replied: “I feel that her emotional trauma should be taken into account. She has had psychological input to help her come to terms with what happened to her.

“She will probably carry this all her life.”

The trial before Sheriff Kenneth Maciver has been adjourned until Monday.