Young daughter testifies in father’s Fort Saskatchewan murder trial

Back in November 2019, the accused’s daughter was just five years old when she said she watched her baby brother get attacked by their father.

The morning after the deadly attack in the family’s Fort Saskatchewan home, she sat down with a police officer at the Zebra Child Protection Centre.

Playing with a small sandbox, she recounted the minutes leading up to her one-year-old brother’s death.

Global News cannot share names in this case, because of a court-ordered publication ban designed to protect the victims’ identities.

On Thursday, the jury in an Edmonton courtroom watched the recording of that 2019 interview.

The little girl said her and “daddy” were sleeping on different couches in the living room while her one-year-old brother played with toys on the floor.

She told the officer her brother started crying. Then their dad got up.

“He started fighting us,” she said in the video.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "He started fighting us," she said in the video.

“He was stepping on him… he threw him… on the couch.”

She told the officer her dad punched her brother “Everywhere, even on the lips.”

The little girl said her dad also fought her: “Punched me in the head and the cheek…. with his knuckles… three times.”

When asked what happened next, she told the officer her father said sorry and she went to see her brother.

“I was trying to get him awake, but he died though,” she said.

“He has to go to heaven because he lost all his blood.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "He has to go to heaven because he lost all his blood."

The daughter, now seven years old, petted a service dog while speaking to the court on Thursday.

READ MORE: Victim’s mother takes stand in Fort Saskatchewan murder trial

When cross-examined, she agreed with the defence when he said after the fighting was done, her dad woke up and asked her what happened.

She also agreed she said, “Daddy you hit him, you hit him.”

At the outset of the trial, the defence admitted the father did kill his son, but argues he didn’t do it consciously, being somehow asleep at the time.

The defence said it intends to call a world renowned sleep doctor to the stand later in the trial.