The lawyer for murder suspect Karim Salahuddin told his client it would "be all right" when Police stopped him from fully checking his own Police statement, a jury heard yesterday.

Salahuddin, 27, is charged with the murder of his infant daughter, Cassidy Ann. Cassidy was rushed to the hospital on the evening of May 5, 2003, and died early the next morning from her injuries. She was almost six months old.

The Crown is alleging that Cassidy died of shaken baby syndrome, the result of a violent shaking by her father.

Salahuddin, however, claimed he lost his footing on a hill while carrying Cassidy in a pumpkin seat, and that she fell ? while still in the pumpkin seat ? down the hill.

Salahuddin has also alleged that Police fabricated parts of his official Police statements. In early statements he is recorded as confessing to shaking the baby "hard" ? a confession he claimed never to have made.

Yesterday, Salahuddin's second day on the stand in his defence, during cross-examination, Salahuddin said his father called lawyer Larry Scott on his behalf.

Mr. Scott was with Salahuddin for several of his statements to Police, and also witnessed a reconstruction of events at Salahuddin's house on Serpentine Road on the afternoon of May 6, 2003.

Salahuddin said Mr. Scott was sitting next to him during one interview in particular with Police. At the end of the interview, Police officers handed Salahuddin the written record of the interview and asked him to read it to verify it was correct.

Before he finished, however, he said officers asked for the statement back. He said he told Mr. Scott he had not finished reading.

When Crown counsel Kulandra Ratneser asked Salahuddin if Mr. Scott was going to testify on his behalf, however, Salahuddin's lawyer John Perry QC objected, and the jury was sent out while lawyers began legal arguments.

When the jury returned, Salahuddin stated that when he told Mr. Scott he had not finished reading: "He said, 'Don't worry about it, it'll be all right'."

Salahuddin said he assumed what was written was what he had said, and signed the document. Throughout the day he continued to dispute parts of his statements to Police, in particular parts where he is recorded as confessing to shaking his daughter and hitting her.

During the reconstruction at his house on May 6, he said, Police told him to strike certain poses and then took photos.

One photo showed Salahuddin holding a teddy bear with his hand to the side of the bear's face. Police officers testified Salahuddin was demonstrating how he hit his daughter. However, the defendant said yesterday: "They told me to pick up the teddy bear and put my hand on the side of the teddy bear's face."

He also disputed Police when he said the reconstruction did not include him demonstrating with the teddy bear how he allegedly shook the baby. Police, he added, took notes "once in a while".

A Type II diabetic, Salahuddin testified he repeatedly refused food while in Police custody because he did not feel like eating. "Food was the last thing on my mind."

The lack of food, however, left him "dizzy" and "tired", with Thursday, May 8 a "complete blank". On cross-examination, however, he stated that whether tired or hungry, he could always speak the truth.

He testified that he was about halfway up the hill behind his house when he lost his footing and dropped the pumpkin seat.

As he fell, he twisted so as not to fall on top of his child, he said. Cassidy ? still strapped into the seat ? then rolled down the sand, gravel and asphalt hill about 15 feet, tumbling from side to side, not end to end.

In court, he indicated scuff marks on the handle of the pumpkin seat, but he said he could see none on the jumper Cassidy was wearing at the time of the fall.

He also stated he wiped sand off his daughter when he picked her up. Medical personnel have stated they saw no sand or other debris on Cassidy's body to indicate she rolled down a hill.

Salahuddin said he told Police the day of his daughter's death that he was "sad, angry, upset".

"I was angry because of what happened to Cassidy, and because I was the one who let it happen," he said, referring to losing his footing on the hill and falling while carrying the infant in the pumpkin seat.

"She was in my care. I know it's not my fault, but I still feel messed up about it. I feel like I have let Cassidy down."