Woman punched repeatedly while holding newborn, Daniel Fitzsimons trial hears

But in extraordinary scenes at Oxford Crown Court yesterday the alleged victim of the attack appeared to disavow her original complaint about the incident and was called a 'hostile witness.'

Daniel Fitzsimons, 33 of no fixed abode, denies wounding with intent, an alternative count of unlawful wounding, cruelty to a child and affray.

As his trial got under way yesterday, prosecutor Alexandra Bull told jurors that the sustained onslaught took place at an Oxford address on December 22 last year.

Ms Bull said: "This is a case, the prosecution say, of serious domestic violence committed by this defendant on his partner while she was holding her newborn baby.

"[It was] followed by a threat towards police that showed up, it is done in possession of a knife."

Jurors were told that the woman was on her sofa with her seven-week old baby when Fitzsimons approached her.

Fitzsimons became 'increasingly angry', the court heard, as a row ensued and he proceeded to 'repeatedly' strike her.

In a police statement she made at the time, jurors were told, the alleged victim said Fitzsimons accused her of cheating on him.

She said that she told him what he wanted to hear just to make the violence stop.

Prosecutors said that she was 'absolutely terrified' during her ordeal and jurors were shown a blood-stained baby grow which the child was wearing at the time.

Later, when police arrived, it was claimed, Fitzsimons was threatened with a Taser as he was holding what was described as a 'serrated kitchen knife.'

From the witness box yesterday, the alleged victim told jurors that her initial statement in which she detailed the attack to police was not correct.

Describing what she now claims happened, she said she had spat at Fitzsimons after he tried to wake her on the sofa.

She said: "I was not best pleased I was getting woken up, I had not drank alcohol for quite a long time and had quite a bad head.

"After he tried to wake me up, I turned around and spat in his face."

She said that he reacted to that by slapping her in the face and that later she fell to the floor.

She claimed she didn't realise she had suffered any injuries until going upstairs.

Asked about her initial statement she said: "It was inaccurate because I missed out my part of what happened."

Presiding Judge Nigel Daly then agreed with prosecutors that the alleged victim was to be treated as a 'hostile witness' and could be cross-examined on her original version of events.

The alleged victim said she couldn't remember telling police she was 'absolutely terrified' and couldn't recall 'the majority' of her original statement.

She said: "I was a mess, I was all over the place, my head was everywhere, my mental state was not great at all."

It was put to her that the first version of events detailing the violence was correct, an assertion she denied.

The trial continues.