A FATHER shook his 14-month-old baby before hitting her head on a hard surface, a court heard.

Evelyn Lakatos was so seriously injured there was a blood clot on her brain and haemorrhaging behind her left eye.

Paramedics were only called after her father, Istvan Lakatos, took the baby and her older sister Mercedes on a visit to a relative's house and they noticed the toddler was floppy, unresponsive and having fits.

Lakatos, aged 31, of Huxley Street, Brownlow Fold, denies grievous bodily harm with intent, inflicting grievous bodily harm and cruelty to a child.

Alaric Balsano, prosecuting at Bolton Crown Court, told a jury how on November 9, 2007, Lakatos was left in sole charge of his two daughters, whom he fathered with two different women he lived with.

His brother and the girls' mothers, who all used to live with Lakatos in Mornington Road, Heaton, went to work at 5am, leaving both children fit and well.

“The defendant later admitted to police that he was with the girls throughout the day and that there were no visitors to the house,” said Mr Bassano.

At 4pm Lakatos walked with the girls to a relative's house in Lorne Street where his family called the emergency services and Evelyn was rushed to hospital.

Mr Bassano added that Lakatos maintained to police and doctors, who were trying to treat the seriously ill toddler, that he had done nothing to the child and she only became ill after he got to Lorne Street.

“He was lying even to doctors when he should have been concerned about his child's welfare,” he said.

“There is no doubt about it that this little girl had been injured some time that day.”

Doctors said Evelyn's bruised and swollen head could only have been caused by a forceful impact of the skull on to a hard surface — the kind of injury which does not occur from everyday falls or activity.

And they revealed the bleeding behind the eye is an indication of forceful shaking.

“These injuries must have occurred just a few hours before it was noticed the girl was unwell. At a time when she was in the care of the defendant,” said Mr Bassano.

The case continues.