A Supreme Court jury yesterday heard that toddler D'shun Dill spent his brief life at four homes, including the Physical Abuse Centre.

This was revealed during day three of the trial of alleged child killer Paul Christian Darrell.

Darrell, of Hamilton Parish, has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing his son on December 14, 1994. The trial comes after a Coroner's Inquest last February.

Yesterday D'shun's mother, Donna-Mae Dill, gave the court a glimpse into the two-year-old's turbulent world.

The seven-man, five-woman jury also heard that D'shun was slapped in the face by his mother's boyfriend, causing her to flee to the Physical Abuse Centre for shelter.

The 26-year-old mother, of Warwick, testified that the 1994 incident occurred after she returned home from a job interview.

Ms Dill said she had left D'shun and her oldest son at her mother's home with her boyfriend George Green.

"George woke up and started screaming at me about there being no food in the house,'' she recalled. "He walked over to D'shun and started yelling at him.

D'shun started crying and he slapped him across his face.'' Ms Dill said a friend had pointed out to her the next day that D'shun's face was bruised, prompting her to move into the Physical Abuse Centre.

She said she stayed at the Abuse Centre for two months with two of her three sons.

Ms Dill said it was when she decided to move back in with Mr. Green that D'shun went to live with his father.

"I didn't object because I trusted Paul and I didn't want D'shun around George,'' she said.

Under cross-examination by Darrell's lawyer Mark Pettingill, Ms Dill admitted that Mr. Green gave D'shun "licks''.

"Sure George gave licks to D'shun, but not to the point where he beat him,'' she claimed. "He gave him them when he needed it.

"He gave him a slap on the hand. He didn't beat him.'' But she agreed with Mr. Pettingill that the night Mr. Green had slapped D'shun he had yelled: "This f***ing boy is always crying when you talk to him ... What are you crying for?'' Ms Dill said she visited D'shun at Darrell's home, in Hamilton Parish, on three occasions prior to his death and D'shun appeared happy and in good health.

But on one occasion, Ms Dill said she noticed a little scar on D'shun's nose.

"Paul said he got it when he was getting out of the tub,'' she recalled. "He bumped his nose.'' But she said she never saw Darrell discipline D'shun.

Court case Ms Dill also revealed that while D'shun was an infant -- prior to her living with her mother and Mr. Green -- she left him in the care of a friend, Patricia Wade.

"I was away,'' she said. "I was having problems with my family and not making enough money. I was struggling.'' Ms Dill also recalled that on December 14, 1994 she got a telephone call from Darrell telling her to go to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

"He was yelling at me to get to the hospital,'' she said. "He said something about an asthma attack. He sounded like something was very wrong.'' Upon arriving at the hospital, she said she saw Darrell pacing.

Meanwhile, inside doctors were fighting a losing battle to save the youngster's life.

Dr. Edward Shultz, director of the Emergency Room, testified that two surgeons, a paediatrician, and an E.R. doctor administered drugs, a blood transfusion and CPR to D'shun in an effort to save him.

Dr. Shultz said he noticed bruising to D'shun's shoulder, back, abdomen and pubic area when the child was brought into the hospital at 5.35 p.m.

"There were brief periods where we had a (heart) beat and a faint pulse,'' he said. "But the child never had any spontaneous breathing.'' At 7.14 p.m., he said, all attempts to revive D'shun were halted.

Under cross-examination by Mr. Pettingill, Dr. Shultz said the fluids and blood that doctors put into D'shun could have made the bruising on his body "more obvious''.

The trial resumes on Monday morning before Puisne Judge Richard Ground.