Baby Hollie Ashurst murder trial: LIVE updates as accused father takes to the witness stand

He is on trial at Manchester Crown Court after pleading not guilty to the murder and manslaughter of his 14-month-old daughter Hollie. Press ctrl F5 to refresh for updates ...

4.25pm The jury is now being sent home for the day. Cross-examination will continue tomorrow at 10am.

4.20pm In the messages they continue to discuss money. Leanne says he always goes on about money. He says he was cautious when it came to money because he wasn't working and had rent to pay and a baby to care for.

4.15pm Mr Gozen now asks about text messages between Ashurst and Leanne on February 18, when they're discussing money. Leanne has lent £60 to someone and Ashurst is telling her to get it back, as it hasn't been repaid. Leanne suggests having their own bank accounts. He tells her to stop giving money to people. She says if she wants to give her money to people, she will. Ashurst tells the jury all their money was in one account and they shared it.

One message from Leanne on this day says Ashurst spent £150 on drugs. He doesn't remember how long it took him to use up the drugs, but says it wouldn't have all been in one night.

4.10pm Ashurst is asked why he "begrudged" lending the money. He says it's the money not being paid back on time that he begrudges.

4pm Mr Gozem is asking about Craig Forshaw's business. He says he won a car in a raffle on Facebook and it would cost £500 to insure it. He thinks that's why Mr Forshaw wanted to borrow money. He didn't want to lend him the £350 though. "I'm not the kind of person who likes to say no. In hindsight it probably would have been easier to say no but I didn't do that." He admits he "misled" Mr Forshaw. He says Leanne know about this.

Ashurst says they didn't have money problems. While he had told Leanne to stop lending money, he says the issue was about lending money and not because they had money issues.

3.55pm Mr Gozem asks about a message from Leanne referring to him shouting during the night. Ashurst says there was a smiling face with the message and it was humour. She wasn't concerned. Mr Gozem questions if he really had a good night's sleep and Ashurst says he did. Says he does sometimes struggle to get to sleep with his anxiety but is a "deep sleeper" once he's asleep.

Ashurst leased a car from Craig Forshaw. It cost £450 a month, which his uncle Christopher paid. Mr Gozem asks why he paid this. Ashurst says he was a "very close family member" and he looked after his mother when he was alive. He said he got the car so he could visit his mum and look after Hollie.

There was also a Mercedes A-class on the drive belonging to Leanne, which was also leased from Craig. He doesn't remember how much that cost but thinks it was around £300. Leanne had "quite a few" lessons and two driving tests which she had failed. He says she wanted independence. Mr Gozem questions why she had that car when she hadn't passed her driving test. Ashurst says she was insured to drive it and could practice. His uncle didn't pay for this car.

3.45pm Ms Grahame has now finished her questions. Prosecutor Guy Gozem QC is on his feet for cross-examination. He clarifies some things about the car seat before turning to his questions. He says he'll start today but cross-examination will continue tomorrow.

Mr Gozem asks Ashurst about taking cocaine the night before he was looking after Hollie. Ashurst says it's not something he was proud of doing, but he went to bed to make sure he was "fresh" the next day to look after Hollie.

He took cocaine between 9.30pm and 10pm and says he's "100 per cent certain" it wasn't on Thursday, February 28. "I'm not the kind of person who would wake up in a morning and take cocaine and certainly not when I am spending the day with my daughter."

Mr Gozem now asks about Ashurst going to see Sarah Jolley. Ashurst says he was polite and there was no disagreement.

He regrets taking cocaine the night before caring for Hollie.

3.40pm The judge and jury have returned. Ms Grahame now has hard copies of a picture of the car seat, after problems with technology this morning meant she couldn't show it to them then. It's a picture taken by the police of the seat in Ashurst's car, taken after he was arrested.

3.25pm The jury is now having a short break.

3.20pm Ashurst says he was feeling terrible at this time and his anxiety was "through the roof".

He doesn't know how Hollie's ankle was fractured. He says she grazed her head in the first fall. He doesn't remember seeing marks on her fingers and doesn't know how they were caused.

He picked Hollie up "tightly" after the first fall and he was shaking.

He didn't stop the car or pull over when Hollie fell from her car seat, he just reached through and pulled her between the seats. He didn't know if she was injured from what happened in the car.

3.15pm Ashurst was arrested on suspicion of section 18 assault. He had never been arrested before or to a police station. He was asked if he wanted legal advice and said in his eyes he hadn't done anything wrong.

"People who knew me knew how much I loved her. I spent every day with her," he says.

He continued: "I used to love spending time with her. To be told or suggested that I had done something to hurt her was really, really nasty and bad."

He remembers being told Hollie had died. He was walking behind a woman who suddenly turned round and told him. "She said Hollie's died, just like that."

He replied "no comment" to police in interviews. He says this was on legal advice.

3.10pm He got to Wigan Infirmary, where 20 to 25 people were around Hollie. He says he couldn't sit down as he was "too worked up". He was "earwigging" on what people were saying about Hollie.

Leanne arrived and they were both taken to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital by a police officer. Hollie was transferred there for treatment.

At Wigan they had been told Hollie had a fractured skull. It's later established that wasn't the case.

Leanne and Ashurst waited in a family room with a police officer for more than four hours. He says they weren't given updates on Hollie. He was later arrested. He didn't know at that stage what Hollie's injuries were.

He doesn't remember if he told anyone about Hollie falling down the stairs when he was carrying her.

"I have to live with that that she dropped out of my hands," he said.

3.05pm Ms Grahame is asking about the injuries Hollie had. He says he didn't know the extent of her injuries when she was at the GP surgery.

He says it was "chaos" at the surgery - doors were locked, it may have been the lunch break, they couldn't get the equipment that was needed, it was a struggle to get a doctor.

He had gone out without his phone. He tried to ring Leanne but there was no answer. He tried to call his mum to ask her to go to the hair salon, then he borrowed a paramedic's phone to Google the salon's phone number.

2.55pm The jury is now seeing CCTV footage outside Standish Medical Centre. Ashurst pulled up outside and ran in with Hollie in his arms. He ran in and asked for help. A doctor came to help Hollie.

"I was pacing up and down, I had my head in my hands. I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't understand what was up with her at all," he said. Ashurst said he felt "helpless".

He was asked to sit on a chair in an ambulance and says he ripped his shorts. He went back inside though. He remembers seeing people doing compressions on Hollie.

2.50pm The court is being shown CCTV footage of Ashurst driving. He's intending to go to Wigan Infirmary with Hollie. The passenger-side window is open. He says there's a function on his key that opens all the windows and he must have pressed that in a panic. He thinks the rear window is open too. Hollie is in the back of the car.

Ashurst says as he was driving, he was "well shook up" and "really, really shaking". Hollie was moving in the seat and her condition was deteriorating. He says she had no support in her neck and she looked white. He was trying to get past other vehicles. He braked hard at traffic lights and says Hollie fell out of the car seat. She landed on the floor behind the passenger seat. He picked her up and put her on his knee. Ashurst decided to go to Standish Medical Centre instead of the hospital.

2.40pm The shorts were only a few days old, he says. He thinks he caught them on a wooden plaque.

"It caused me to slip. Upon slipping, I lost grip of Hollie. I didn't see how she fell," he said. She fell towards the porch. Ashurst also fell. "I landed on my bum on the first step of the stairs at the bottom."

Hollie was face down. He picked her up, put his trainers on and rushed to the car,. He did not think about calling an ambulance, he thought the quickest thing to do was go to the car and drive to hospital. "I also heard when she fell like a gasp of air coming from her mouth."

Ashurst says he was shaking. His car keys were in his pocket and he put Hollie in the car seat.

2.30pm The jury heard earlier from a paramedic who said Ashurst told him Hollie had fallen down steps and crawled back up. Ashurst says he finds it "hard to believe" he said that as Hollie could not crawl up steps. He was panicking and didn't know what had happened.

He was feeling "panicky" and thinks he was having a panic attack. He was trembling and having hot sweats and knew something wasn't right. He picked up Hollie and felt his pocket rip on something as he went down the stairs. He let go of Hollie.

2.25pm Ashurst went back inside from the bin and heard Hollie. "It was like a crying sound, like a whingeing sound," he said. He slid his trainers off and ran upstairs. Hollie was on a step and lying face down. "She was lying on her belly with her legs closest to me," he said.

"When I got to her she was shaking from head to toe. Her full body was shaking from head to toe," he said.

He picked her up and says she was still shaking. He was trying to get her attention. "She wasn't even looking at me," he said. She had a graze on the right-hand side of her head.

2.20pm Nina Grahame QC, defending, is going through text messages between Ashurst and Leanne. They're talking about money and he asks what she wants for tea. He was doing jobs around the house while texting her. He had been playing with Hollie in the living room, then took her in the kitchen for lunch to try to give her some food. "She wasn't interested in it whatsoever," he said. He wasn't concerned though. He was going to take Hollie to his mum's house that afternoon and thought she would feed her too. Hollie did eat some chocolate buttons though.

He thought Hollie was tired so put her in her cot to see if she would sleep. She didn't though, so he got her out and put her on the floor near her toy box so she could play. She wasn't interested though and was following him around as he did jobs. He went downstairs to do jobs there too and went outside to the bin.

2.15pm He arrived at Sarah Jolley's home and left Hollie in the car with the engine running. He went in the porch and explained he had got the nutrition plan but didn't like some foods on it, so she said he could swap them for other things. She commented on his holiday.

Sarah Jolley has already given evidence and said she thought Ashurst seemed "tense". He says that could be because of his anxiety or because Hollie was in the car.

He left and went to his mum's house but she wasn't in, so he drove home.

2.10pm Ashurst is explaining he knew Sarah Jolley from a gym he used to go to. He stopped training in 2016 or 2017.

She recently had a baby and he saw her adverts on Facebook for nutrition plans and personal training. He got in touch for a diet plan as he wanted to lose weight. "I was getting sick of drinking and eating rubbish and I wanted to get back into the gym."

He went to see her on February 28 to pay £50 for the plan. He stopped at Co-op on the way to get money from the cash machine.

2.05pm The judge and jury have returned from lunch and Ashurst will continue to give evidence. He and Hollie went home and he put her in the cot while he did a few jobs around the house, including tidying up and putting the pictures from Asda in frames.

He went to see her in the cot and got her out to change her nappy. He put her on the bed in the bedroom and then had to go to the ensuite bathroom to get something. "When I came back she had fell off the bed onto the floor. It didn't concern me, it didn't look like she had hurt herself." He said there was "blood saliva" running from her mouth.

He wasn't particularly concerned. He sent Snapchat pictures of Hollie to Leanne.

1pm When he got home, he and Leanne were sending text messages. Then he left home and went to see Sarah Jolley about a diet plan.

The trial will now take a break for lunch and resume at 2pm.

12.50pm The trial now resumes and the jury is being shown CCTV footage of Ashurst and Hollie at Asda in Wigan on Thursday, February 28. He is carrying Hollie in his arms. He explains he is removing her bib and tidying her hair for the photographs.

The second clip shows him waiting while Hollie has the pictures taken. Hollie can't be seen, but he explains he's "pulling faces and trying to make her smile and laugh".

He said Leanne thought he had too many pictures of Hollie, but she was always changing. "There were times when I thought she looked absolutely beautiful," he said. He took every opportunity to take pictures of her.

They had to wait for the pictures to be printed so he took Hollie to the cafe for breakfast. He ordered toast for her and cut it up, but she wasn't too keen on it.

He put Hollie in the car seat in the car and his shopping on the front seat. He'd only bought a few things. He opened some chocolate eggs and they ate them in the car, before he drove home.

12.35pm Ashurst went to Asda with Hollie. He said she looked "absolutely beautiful" so decided to get pictures taken of her at Max Spielmann. They had a special offer on.

The jury is now leaving for a few minutes while efforts are made to address the problems with technology.

12.25pm He says Hollie was fine by the time they dropped Leanne off at work. Her first day had been a trial so this was her first proper day at work, he says. Ashurst says they had made up by the time she got out of the car and he wished her good luck.

Then he and Hollie went to Asda. Hollie was in the car seat. Ms Grahame is asking Ashurst to describe the car seat. He says it was for babies weighing between nine and 15kgs and explains where various straps went. Ms Grahame was going to show the jury a photograph of the seat but there are problems with the technology at the moment. They're looking at a different picture instead and discussing where the straps went.

They'd been using the car seat from mid January and had no problems with it. Hollie was a bit small for it, but they'd given the previous car seat to Leanne's brother when he had a baby.

12.15pm The judge and jury have now returned to the court room and Ashurst will continue to give evidence.

Overnight from February 27 to 28, Leanne slept in the spare room because she and Ashurst had argued. He doesn't remember what it was about.

The next morning, Leanne got Hollie up. He says he felt "fresh" and had no effects from the cocaine. He drove Leanne to work and says there "wasn't a lot of conversation" between them.

He says Hollie was very upset that morning, describing her as "hysterical" but he doesn't know why. Leanne managed to calm her down.

Noon The jury is now being given a break until 12.15pm.

11.55am At 5.50pm Ashurst took a photograph of Hollie, who was being bathed by Leanne.

"Before she got in the bath, she (Leanne) took her upstairs to change her and she shouted me up to have a look at a mark on her leg. I went up to have a look at it and it was a red mark on her thigh," he says.

This mark is what the jury has heard is thought to be a bite mark. He says when he saw it, it didn't look like the photograph that was later taken.

Leanne had an early night and he stayed up. He took cocaine. He then went to bed. "I slept very well. I certainly had a good 10 hours," he said.

11.45am A health visitor went to the family home for a 12-month assessment of Hollie in February 2019. "As far as I was concerned, she left very happy," says Ashurst.

On Wednesday, February 27, he was at home in the morning with Leanne and Hollie. "We woke up, Hollie had a bottle, she came and played with us in the bed for an hour or so, watched TV." Leanne was doing someone's nails and he went to Wigan to have his hair cut. He took Hollie with him. Afterwards, they went for breakfast in Wigan town centre and then he bought shorts in Primark.

He went home and Leanne was doing a woman's nails, while her three-year-old son played on the living room floor. Hollie played there too while Ashurst went upstairs to the bathroom and bedroom. He says the boy "snatched" a few things from Hollie's hands but she wasn't upset. He was about double the size of Hollie.

He later went to an appointment at Claire House and Leanne took Hollie to the library.

After the appointment, he spoke to Craig Forshaw by phone. He wanted Ashurst to pick up a filing cabinet for him, but he couldn't find the location so he drove home.

11.35am In September 2018 Ashurst went to his GP and was referred to Claire House. He had a telephone triage appointment in November 2018. He had applied for PIP. He says he wasn't necessarily struggling with his mental health but has "always been an anxious person".

Ms Grahame is going through the notes of his medical appointment in January 2019. He said he was having trouble sleeping and the medication wasn't helping him. "A lot of it was exaggerated because I was applying for the PIP and there was an assessment going through," he says.

He said he told the medical worker about how he looked after Hollie. He says if he had told her he was worried about looking after Hollie when Leanne returned to work, she should have taken safeguarding action. He doesn't think it was said in that context. He was not concerned about looking after Hollie and if he was, there were a lot of family members around to help.

11.30am Ashurst is questioning the date of other messages shown to the jury. They're dated February 26 and he asked Mr Forshaw to look out for his house when he went on holiday, but the holiday was from February 6. He thinks they should be from January. Ashurst says he didn't have any other plans to go on holiday.

11.20am Ms Grahame QC is referring to text messages the jury has already heard about. Leanne had lent money to someone and they had not paid it back. Ashurst explains he told her to ask for the money back and to stop lending money to people.

He is asked about a message Leanne sent saying he spent £150 on drugs. When asked if he had done that, he says: "Possibly yes, I think we may have been going out that week."

She is now asking about messages between Ashurst and Craig Forshaw. He says he leased the car from Mr Forshaw and he became a family friend. Mr Forshaw wanted to borrow £325. Ashurst was with Leanne and made an excuse blaming her for not getting the money, but he says Leanne knew about it and was with him when he sent the message. He didn't want to say no to Mr Forshaw.

11.15am Ashurst says they didn't have any money worries. He was claiming benefits because he wasn't working. He got PIP for his anxiety and depression, ESA and universal credit. His mum used to give him money too - about £6,000 around 18 months to two years before Hollie died. His uncle paid for the lease on his car. Ashurst got a large inheritance when his dad died and also inherited his car, which he sold for £9,000.

Ashurst went on holiday with Leanne and Hollie in February 2019 to Gran Canaria. He said they paid for that with money he had saved that had been given to him by his mum and uncle and from his benefits.

11.10am He started using cocaine in 2016 or 2017. "I would use it possibly twice, three times a week if I was out doing anything that involved drinking really."

He said he didn't use a lot, maybe two or three lines, and it made him feel "relaxed, happy".

He told police he took cocaine and then said he didn't. He says he realised he had told police he took drugs, which is why he changed what he said.

Ashurst says he took cocaine between 9.30pm and 10pm on Wednesday, February 27. He had two cans of lager and was watching sport on TV.

11.05am Leanne had been doing a bit of work in January 2019, including renting a chair in Standish and work at home. She then got a job at a salon in Ashton and was going to work there two days a week. Ashurst cared for her while Leanne was working or sometimes his mum.

He says Hollie had a "brilliant relationship" with both him and Leanne.

Ashurst took Hollie with him when he had his hair cut on February 27, the day before she was rushed to hospital.

"You could basically do anything you wanted to do and she wouldn't cause you any problems at all," he says.

Ashurst says it had become "the norm" for him to drink three or four cans a night. He wasn't getting drunk and didn't think it was a problem. He contacted Addaction after being told to do so by mental health services. He says drinking didn't cause any problems between him and Leanne.

11am Ashurst describes how Hollie was learning to walk by February 2019. "She was standing up, she was trying to walk, she was pulling herself up on furniture, falling down all the time, banging her head on different pieces of furniture."

Ms Grahame is referring to video footage previously seen in court of Ashurst speaking to a police officer in hospital, talking about Hollie trying to stand against a coffee table. He says this was a wooden table at his mum's house which Hollie banged her chin on.

10.55am He says he was "absolutely over the moon" when Leanne became pregnant and was at her side when Hollie was born.

Hollie had a cleft lip and palate and had operations for that. He was at the hospital with her. "To see her go through that was really upsetting and heartbreaking."

He says Hollie slept through the night as a baby and was "good as gold". "She was very much loved," he says.

Ashurst said: "I was forever putting photos of her on Facebook, every single morning, saying how beautiful she was and how happy she looked. I was well in there with looking after her and being a good dad."

10.50am Ashurst says his mum and uncle Christopher Lynch knew about his mental health issues. His mum would always be at the end of the phone if he needed anything.

He had panic attacks sometimes, which made him "really panicky" and he had "hot sweats". He had a panic attack on February 28.

He says he was involved with looking after Hollie and did lots for her, including feeding and dressing her. "I was very, very capable of looking after her. I enjoyed looking after her more than anything."

He has a daughter from a previous relationship. She's six now. He last saw her in March 2018. He split from her mother in 2013.

He met Leanne Thompson through a dating website in September 2016. There were making plans to get married in 2020 and says it was a "very happy relationship."

"We were settled in a new house in Fleming Court, which we had been in six to eight months. Things were going brilliantly," he says.

10.45am He started having problems with anxiety when he was 24 or 25.

"I would address it by booking appointments to see a doctor or going to see my mental health person," he says.

He has received medication for it since 2011. He had depression as well.

"I was worrying about things, maybe thinks that didn't need worrying about," he said.

He worked in various warehouses and factories after leaving school, before getting a job at Heinz in Wigan in his early to mid 20s.

10.40am Mr Justice Dove has arrived and Daniel Ashurst is in the dock. He's wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt and a tie. The jury is now coming in too.

Ms Grahame has just called Ashurst to the witness stand. He takes the oath. He says his full name and date of birth. He's 33 years old.

He was asked if he deliberately caused harm to Hollie on February 28 and says "absolutely not". He denies having ever caused harm to Hollie. He says he never shook her or bit her.

Ashurst was born in Wigan and has two younger brothers. His dad died in 2010. He saw his mum a lot and she lived nearby. He has four nieces and nephews.

He went to Abraham Guest High School and left at the age of 16 with GCSEs.

10.30am Hollie's mother Leanne Thompson and other family members have now come into court. She's been here for every day of the trial.

10.20am Prosecutor Guy Gozem QC and Nina Grahame QC, who is defending Ashurst, have now arrived in court. There are a few people in the public gallery too.

10am I'm in court three ready to report on proceedings, but it seems there may be a delay with the case starting this morning. If you want to catch up, here is what happened in court on Thursday. The jury did not sit on Friday.

8am Good morning. The trial is expected to resume at 10am today in court three.