THE mother of a two-year-old boy alleged to have been murdered by his babysitter was yesterday accused of being responsible for causing his fatal head injuries.

Clare Fisher tearfully denied the suggestions by defence barrister Andrew Thomas QC, during courtroom exchanges in which she was branded a liar.

During cross-examination, Miss Fisher, 24, denied that she had been “short or snappy”

with her son, Kyle, in the days leading to his death in July 2004.

Miss Fisher was said to have been struggling to cope without her parents, who were on holiday in Tenerife, and swore at Kyle when she lost her temper during a game of dominoes.

In reply to an accusation from Mr Thomas that the then-teenage single mother had struck Kyle, Miss Fisher said: “I never, ever, raised a hand to him.”

She admitted that the weekend before her son’s death, she left him home alone with a broom handle against his bedroom door while she went out drinking.

Miss Fisher, who was 19 at the time, said it was “the stupidest thing I have ever done”

By Neil Hunter neil.hunter@nne.co.uk and something she would have to live with for the rest of her life.

She admitted her home was a mess and that she had not been “the most perfect mother in the world” but maintained she loved Kyle and would never hurt him.

It is said that babysitter Suzanne Holdsworth, 38, injured Kyle on Tuesday, July 20, while Miss Fisher was at the cinema, and again the following night while he stayed with her.

The prosecution says Mrs Holdsworth lost her temper on the Wednesday and repeatedly smashed Kyle’s head against a banister at her home on the Central Estate, Hartlepool.

Mr Thomas yesterday picked on the lies Miss Fisher told after she left Kyle alone when she went out, and the differing accounts she gave about his injuries.

During the second day of a retrial at Teesside Crown Court, he told Miss Fisher: “Sadly, the only explanation for Kyle’s many injuries over a number of days is that you were losing your temper with him.

“All we know is that on the Tuesday night, Kyle had very severe bruising, none of us will ever know – probably other than you – how Kyle got those bruises.”

Mrs Holdsworth, formerly of Millpool Close, Hartlepool, and now from Seacroft, Leeds, denies murder and faces a trial expected to last three weeks.

It was said that she had sole care for Kyle on the Tuesday evening, but it emerged yesterday that she may have gone to the shop for cigarettes at some point.

Miss Fisher admitted being in the bedroom alone with her son, and initially said Miss Holdsworth was in the garden, but later accepted her neighbour may have left.

The trial continues.