The mother of a Berkeley toddler who died from untreated head and stomach injuries blamed his older sister for a series of bruises discovered on the boy's body during a post-mortem examination.
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The woman, who along with her son cannot be named, is accused of causing the two-year-old's death in August 2012 by failing to get timely medical treatment for a traumatic head injury and perforated gut.
An autopsy conducted on the boy's body found as well as the brain trauma and stomach condition, he had multiple older injuries, including prior fractures to three ribs, both wrists, a collar bone and shoulder blade.
The boy was also covered in bruises, jurors in the woman's NSW Supreme Court trial were told.
In a recorded police interview played to the court on Thursday, the woman was asked to explain the boy's many injuries, and say whether she'd noticed him in any pain in the weeks leading up to his death.
The woman denied noticing anything unusual about the boy's behaviour, but told police he had a high pain tolerance.
"He never showed pain," she said, although she did recall a time when he had returned from his father's - the woman's former partner - and had said "ouch" when she went to lift him out of the car.
However, the woman said she thought he was complaining about his foot, which had been swollen in recent days, so she carried him into the house.
When asked about bruises to the boy's body, the woman said he often came back from his father's house with bruises.
She recalled seeing a bruise on his stomach and on his chin when he last returned home from seeing his father - five days before his death.
When asked why she continued to allow visits, the woman said her former partner had threatened to take her to the Family Court if she withdrew his access.
The woman also told police some of the marks on his body were likely from his older sister, who she'd seen bite him on occasion while at their father's place.
"A couple of weeks ago, he came home with bite marks on his body, so I rang [their father] and he said she'd bitten him on the hands and on his body because he was not doing what she wanted him to do," the mother told police.
"She never bit him at my house, it all happened at [the father's house]. There was no control at his house."
The trial continues.
