SOUTHAMPTON toddler Jason Dorricott was forced to sit naked and crying on a potty for five hours and slapped in the head and kicked by his father when he tried to get off, a court has heard.

The two-year-old was repeatedly smacked in the back of the head and had a bruise the size of an orange on the base of his skull, Winchester Crown Court was told.

Jay Christians, a lodger at the city centre flat where the child lived with his father, Mark Dorricott, said that as well as witnessing Dorricott hit the child on at least ten different occasions there were several occasions when he would hear loud slaps from a bedroom and Jason screaming and crying.

"If Jason wouldn't settle down he would be slapped," he said.

Dorricott, 27, formerly of Albion Towers, Golden Grove, denies three counts of child cruelty between August 1997 and November 1998.

The jury was told that Jackie Ham, Dorricott's 35-year-old former lover, of William MacLeod Way, Millbrook, had already pleaded guilty to two counts of cruelty.

Mr Christians, the brother of Ham's former lover Anthony Christians, and the first of 32 witnesses scheduled to give evidence in the trial, said Jason was "grabbed and slammed down on the potty." "I saw Jason on the potty, naked. He was forced on the potty by Mark."

He said the child, who was offered a bit of toast and some drinks in the hours he sat on the potty, was "slapped and put back on" when he tried to get off.

"Because he didn't use the potty he was kicked by Mark in the leg a couple of times.

"He started crying quite loudly and was slapped again in the back of the head," he said.

After witnessing the potty incident and others, he said he became so concerned he made anonymous calls to social services "four or five times" but that each time they came round Dorricott was out.

In cross-examination, Sally O'Neill QC quizzed Mr Christians as to why he didn't tell social services directly of his concerns.

He said: "I thought the anonymous calls would be enough. I didn't think it was that serious."

He said he didn't leave his name because he didn't want to cause friction and didn't want to have to leave the flat.

"If someone makes a complaint they social services should do something about it. That's what they're there for."

He admitted that he didn't know what had caused the bruise to the back of Jason's head, had never confronted Dorricott directly over his treatment of the child and that apart from the anonymous calls, which could not be verified, he had never said anything to anyone about what he had witnessed.

But he denied making up the allegations to help the case of Jackie Ham, whom he described as a friend.

"I'm not trying to help anybody," he said. Proceeding.

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