A Cork father accused of murdering his six-month-old daughter told the Central Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday that he could not remember anything about assaulting her.
Mr Fergus Whitty (31) has denied murdering Vanessa Kelly at his apartment on Mount Vernon Crescent, South Douglas Road, Cork on September 15th, 1996.
On the third day of his trial yesterday, Mr Whitty told the jury: "I remember picking her up and going to the bathroom - that's about it, until afterwards."
Pressed for two hours by both prosecution and defence counsel to recall the details, Mr Whitty repeatedly said he did not know what had happened.
However, he agreed that he had told gardai he had struck Vanessa "twice or three times" with his fist and that his statements to them were accurate.
He also told Mr Patrick MacEntee SC that he agreed with what gardai had said in evidence.
Asked if he could remember anything at all about the assault he answered: "I can't, you know - maybe I'm blocking it out myself, I don't know."
In a statement to gardai entered in evidence on Wednesday, Mr Whitty had said he hit his daughter with a closed fist in the face and the stomach and squeezed her mouth with his hand.
Yesterday Mr Whitty told the court he had had "roughly six or seven pints" on Friday, September 13th. The following morning he had an argument with his partner, Ms Yvonne Kelly, about his drinking.
He went to a pub and drank three or four pints, and then to another where he drank at least 10 more pints of lager.
He agreed with Mr Patrick McCarthy, prosecuting, that he had drunk himself into insensibility. But it was possible, he agreed, that he was in command of his faculties when he began trying to feed Vanessa that evening.
He said he remembered being wakened by Vanessa's crying and going to the bathroom with her. He remembered tapping the bathroom mirror to try to amuse her, but nothing after that.
The evidence for the defence is expected to finish today, before Mr Justice Flood and a jury.