Tina McLeod denies repeatedly shaking the child

"I am not in denial. I know I never harmed Alex," Tina McLeod told the High Court in Edinburgh.

Earlier the court heard Mrs McLeod describe her panic when she found the boy on her living room floor.

She said she could not remember every minute detail of what happened to one-year-old Alexander Graham.

Under cross examination the 40-year-old accepted there were differences of opinion over her explanations of what had happened.

Mrs McLeod, of Craigleith Hill Avenue, Edinburgh, denies fatally injuring the toddler in her home in July 2001.

She is accused of repeatedly shaking and twisting the boy and striking his head against an unknown blunt object or surface.

Other child

Alexander died the following day when his parents agreed to his life support system being switched off.

On Monday, the court heard that Mrs McLeod told an operator during a 999 call that Alexander might have been injured on a settee while playing with another child.

She said she had made the comment in a "panic situation" - even though she had not seen the girl on the sofa in her house.

Alexander Graham died in July 2001

Advocate Depute Gerald Hanretty QC, prosecuting, asked her: "You weren't entirely sure where the other child was, were you?

"She's not been on the settee when you leave and she's not on the settee when you get back and you have been away for seconds.

"So why did you say they were doing something on the settee?"

Mrs McLeod replied: "It's just what came into my mind."

She also denied asking a nurse if she thought she had shaken Alexander too hard.

Mrs McLeod said she thought the question of shaking had been raised by the nurse when medics were trying to find out what might have happened to the toddler.

Shaking claim

Asked if she accepted that to some extent she had shaken the boy, trying to revive him, Mrs McLeod said: "No, not in any malicious or violent way."

Mr Henretty then suggested that, while looking after Alexander, for whatever reason, she grabbed him by his dungarees and shook him so that his head went backwards and forwards, causing the injuries which the doctors found.

"There has to be an alternative explanation. That is just not true. I would never harm any child," Mrs McLeod told him.

She also denied striking the little boy's head against the settee or against the floor.

"You killed him, didn't you?" challenged the prosecutor. "I did not," she replied.

Mr Hanretty continued: "You cannot face up to reality."

Mrs McLeod told him: "That is not true."

Formal training

During her evidence she also told the court that she had no formal training as a child minder.

And Mrs McLeod said she had been preparing to give up looking after youngsters after securing a college place to further her ambition of becoming a teacher.