THE MUM of a baby allegedly murdered by her boyfriend has admitted repeatedly lying to the authorities about contact he was having with the child.

Chelsea Crilly told at jury at Manchester Crown Court how she and Jamie Chadwick kept secret the fact that they were living together for seven months before her one-year-old daughter, Orianna Crilly-Cifrova died from massive injuries on October 17 last year.

At the time 22-year-old Chadwick was being investigated over injuries another child had suffered and health and social services professionals were concerned in case he had access to Orianna.

Crilly, aged 20, who is accused of causing or allowing the death of a child, frequently wept as she told a jury she had lied several times about Chadwick having access to her daughter and claimed he had got on well with the child

"I didn't think Jamie was a risk and I was scared they would take Orianna off me if they found out Jamie was having contact," she said.

She added that Chadwick not only had contact with the baby, but was left alone with her up to four times a week.

Crilly revealed how, two months before she died, Orianna had slipped and banged her nose on a fireplace and, after the baby received treatment for bruises in hospital, police visited her home and again warned her not to let Chadwick near the baby.

But Chadwick and Crilly continued to live with his sister at her Cross Lane, Radcliffe, flat and Chadwick hid under a bed when the authorities came to see Orianna.

Crilly denied Chadwick's claims, made last week in court, that he had seen her slam the baby down on her bottom and kick her the same day she was rushed to hospital.

She told how she and Chadwick's sister, Aysha Muhammed, had been top a doctor's appointment and returned to the flat on October 16. Chadwick had been alone with the baby, and Crilly said he immediately stated: "I am just telling you now, Orianna has fallen down two steps, the ones to the bathroom."

Crilly said that Chadwick tried to stop her going into the bedroom, where the baby was strapped into her pram, telling her she was sleeping.

But when she saw her daughter she was floppy. "I moved her face towards me. She was white," said Crilly.

An ambulance arrived within minutes but Crilly, of Warwick Road, Atherton, admitted continuing to tell lies, claiming to medics, even as her daughter was dying, that she, not Chadwick, had been present when Orianna fell down stairs.

"I was scared because, obviously, I would have got done for leaving her with him and Orianna would get taken away," she said.

"I just never thought he was capable of doing anything like that."

Chadwick denies murdering Orianna.

The trial continues.