A toddler was allegedly shaken and beaten to death after being forced to drink more water, the High Court heard.
The mother of Tavia da Costa claims her partner carried out the fatal attack on the girl at their home in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
Details emerged as Suzi da Costa (21) was granted bail under conditions which include a prohibition on returning to the town.
She faces charges of manslaughter and causing the death of her daughter by an unlawful act.
Da Costa’s boyfriend, Januaria Sarmento Ximenes (29) is accused of the child’s murder.
Tavia, who was nearly two years old, was found dead at the family home in Windmill Court on October 13.
Post mortem examinations established that she had died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Prosecution counsel Sarah Minford said the toddler had sustained multiple bruises to her head, body and abdomen, with medical opinion that she had been shaken and beaten around the face.
Ximenes, who was not Tavia’s father, had moved in with her mother earlier this year.
The court heard police called to the home found the girl’s body lying on a bed upstairs in the property.
Her mother initially claimed she had fallen and injured herself in the back garden.
Suzi da Costa told police that she had used a hot water bottle to treat the wounds, but woke up the following day to discover Tavia was dead.
But in a further interview she apologised for lying and then alleged that Ximenes was responsible for her death.
She claimed he had repeatedly slapped the child earlier that week for refusing to drink more water.
During that incident he allegedly warned the distressed mother: “‘If you keep crying your daughter will die’.”
Suzi da Costa told police he made another attempt to get Tavia to drink more water as she was being fed on October 12.
She claimed that while Tavia was being fed on October 12, Ximenes forced her to drink more water, soaking her.
He grabbed and shook the child forcibly before taking her upstairs and laying her on the bed, according to da Costa’s account.
“Later that night his friends arrived at the house, he got changed and went out with them, leaving her with Tavia,” Ms Minford told the court.
Suzi da Costa said she lay down beside Tavia and listened to her breathing difficulties.
When she woke later that morning she realised that Tavia was dead.
Alleging that Ximenes had threatened her not to contact police, she ended the interview by saying: “I didn’t kill my daughter, he did.”
Ximenes denies murdering the little girl, insisting during his interviews that she fell down stairs and out of a stroller at the house.
Da Costa’s bid to be released on bail was opposed.
Granting the application, however, Mr Justice Rooney described it as a tragic case.
He ordered her to live at an approved address but imposed a ban on entering Dungannon or contacting her co-accused.