Kayden McGuinness died from blunt force trauma injuries to the head
The BBC reports that the jury of seven men and five woman were told Liam Whoriskey made a series of “no comment” answers to police about the events leading up to the death of Kayden McGuinness.
The 25-year-old, from Glenabbey Gardens in the city, is accused of killing the toddler in 2017.
The toddler was found dead in his Colmcille Court home on 17 September.
Derry Crown Court heard that when asked by a detective constable if the defendant had felt emotional after finding Kayden’s body on the morning of September 17, 2017, the defendant replied, “I don’t know what I felt.”
He added: “It wasn’t normal anyway. Would you feel emotional after finding a three-year-old? Of course I cried”.
The court has previously heard a post-mortem examination revealed Kayden had sustained multiple injuries and bruising.
There were at least 15 non-accidental bruises to the child’s scalp, which had been caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
Liam Whoriskey on trial at Derry Crown Court for the murder of three year toddler Kayden left in his care
In the 18th interview the defendant, when again asked about the injuries to Kayden’s scalp, replied: “I did not kill Kayden”.
When the interviewing officer put it to him, “so you’ve nothing to hide?”, the defendant replied: “no”.
Asked by the detective constable “who do you think did it?” the defendant replied: “no comment, I didn’t hit any child”.
Defence counsel Ciaran Mallon QC told the jury that he found it puzzling that almost 10 months after Kayden’s death both the defendant and the child’s mother Erin McLaughlin were arrested on the same morning.
Both were questioned for two days.
“Almost ten months into this complex investigation, medically it was a complex investigation, the long and short of it is there were two suspects being interviewed on 11 June and 12 June.
“Both were arrested on suspicion of murder based on the material or evidence the police had collated”, Mr Mallon said.
At hearing.
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