The head of the Juvenile and Domestic Crime Unit was accused yesterday of lying on the stand and fabricating Police statements of accused murderer Karim Salahuddin.

Salahuddin, 25, is on trial for the murder of his six-month old daughter, Cassidy Ann Salahuddin. Medical experts have testified that Cassidy died of shaken baby syndrome, and possibly a blow to the head.

The infant was rushed to hospital on the evening of May 5, 2003, and pronounced dead due to her injuries early the next day.

In a statement to Police made the night of May 5, Salahuddin confessed to shaking the baby hard several times and slapping her across the face to stop her from crying. The next day he took Police and his lawyer, who at the time was Larry Scott, through a reconstruction of the events at his Serpentine Road, Pembroke residence, demonstrating on a teddy bear how he said he had shaken and hit his child.

However just two days later Salahuddin told Police he had dropped Cassidy while carrying her in a pumpkin seat, and she had tumbled down a hill. After he was charged with the murder of his daughter he told Police he had made up everything he said about shaking Cassidy, saying it was a “fake” story.

Yesterday, Juvenile and Domestic Crime head Insp. Peter Giles - the officer in charge of the investigation - was accused by Salahuddin's lawyer, John Perry Q.C., of fabricating Police statements and lying to the court while on the stand. “Insp. Giles, you have been telling a pack of lies,” Mr. Perry stated.

“I have not spoken one word of untruth while in this witness stand,” the witness replied.

Mr. Perry said the Police statements were a “hodge podge”, “tailored to provide a confession” and “cynically designed to incriminate the defendant” - all charges Insp. Giles repeatedly denied throughout the day.

In one interview Salahuddin is recorded as stating that it was never his “intent” to hurt Cassidy - language that Mr. Perry alleged was Police language, and not the language of a man who left school at the age of 16.

Mr. Perry also alleged Salahuddin was a “vulnerable man”, that his first statement to Police was made late at night (11.30 p.m.) when there was little realistic possibility of getting a lawyer, that Police dictated the terms of the interviews and did not ask lawyer Larry Scott to sign any of them, and that Police neglected to ask Salahuddin, a diabetic, how he was feeling.

Jailers became worried about Salahuddin because he was not eating, although testimony from emergency room head Dr. Ed Schultz several days ago showed that Salahuddin was in good health.

Insp. Giles denied Mr. Perry's suggestions. Salahuddin appeared “composed, calm ... he was very much composed and calm” during the interview on May 5, he said.

He also said lawyers often came to the Police station “night and day” when their clients were in need, and that Larry Scott was a “very familiar face”.

It is not usual procedure to ask lawyers to sign Police statements, he said, and repeated that Mr. Scott was with Salahuddin during the reconstruction and during all the interviews save the first one, when Salahuddin opted not to call for a lawyer.

Mr. Scott was also present during the reconstruction, when Mr. Perry alleged that Police officers arranged Salahuddin into various incriminating postures and then photographed him.

Insp. Giles denied those claims also, repeating that what the record showed was what happened and that Mr. Scott had been present throughout the reconstruction.

The trial continues today before Chief Justice Richard Ground.