A FOUR-YEAR-OLD was burned, bitten and beaten to death by her mother and her mother's lover, a court heard yesterday.

The jury was told how Leticia Aalayah Wright spent her final days staring forlornly out of her bedroom window before she died of severe head wounds and abdominal injuries last November.

Yesterday, her mother, Sharon Wright, 23, and her former boyfriend, Peter Seaton, 22, appeared in court charged with murder.

Ms Wright, of Almondbury Bank, Moldgreen, Huddersfield, and Mr Seaton, of Meadow Lane, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, both deny the charge.

Opening the case at Bradford Crown Court, Nicholas Campbell, prosecuting, told the jury that Leticia had been burned with cigarettes and had clumps of her hair ripped out, the remains of which were found in a wheelie bin.

Her blood was also found on the walls and carpets of the home she had shared with the two accused at Almondbury Bank, Huddersfield.

Mr Campbell said that it was not possible to say who had inflicted each injury, but said it was the prosecution's case that the pair had acted as part of a joint enterprise.

"She had been subjected to physical abuse on a number of occasions," Mr Campbell said.

"The evidence suggests what happened to Leticia was not the result of a sudden loss of control, rather what happened was sudden, deliberate and brutal."

The court was told that the defendants had met in Hartlepool, where they began an affair.

When Mr Seaton's then girlfriend found out, they had been forced to leave the North-East and had moved to Kettering, before setting up home in Huddersfield.

Mr Campbell told the court that neighbours had become concerned about the new residents of Almondbury Bank because Leticia seemed to spend most of her days looking out of her bedroom window.

Both the upstairs and downstairs curtains seemed to be permanently closed, and two neighbours was so concerned that they phoned the social services, which made an unannounced call at the house on October 13.

Ms Wright told social workers that Leticia had not been registered with a school or a local doctor.

Leticia was in her bedroom, lying on a bunk-bed in her underwear and a dressing gown, and seemingly healthy, the court heard.

After the visit, she was enrolled at Moldgreen Community Primary School, and when it had been checked that she was attending, social services told Ms Wright that the file on her had been closed.

But Leticia went to school only for the first week.

After the school launched an inquiry into her whereabouts, paramedics were called to the house, where they found the girl lying on the lounge floor.

She was rushed to hospital, but despite doctors trying to revive her for 40 minutes, she was pronounced dead. A post-mortem examination revealed she had died as a result of multiple injuries.

The court was told she had also been burned with something similar to a cigarette lighter and had had cigarettes deliberately put on her skin.

She had bite marks to both arms. Dental records matched them to Mr Seaton.

Ms Wright was arrested, but in interviews with police denied she had caused her daughter's injuries, and said Leticia was a "rough and tumbly little girl".

Mr Seaton was arrested in Northallerton and also denied he had assaulted Leticia. He told police he had seen Ms Wright smack her bottom on a few occasions, but said she was never too violent.

But Mr Campbell said that they were the only two adults in the house, so one, if not both, must have been responsible for the fatal injuries.

The trial continues.