A man has gone on trial accused of wrenching a baby out of her cot so forcefully that her leg broke.

The eight-month-old child was left with a full-thickness spiral fracture of the femur after the alleged incident after Aaron Brown, 22, had been up all night playing video games.

The baby's mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said it had been snowing on the day of the incident, on March 3 last year, and she had taken the baby outside to see it.

Then, at about 9am or 10 am, she put her down for a nap at a house in Kippen, Stirlingshire.

The 20-year-old mother said she also went for nap as she had been up all night playing on the Xbox with Brown.

Between 1pm and 2pm, she awoke to hear the baby crying with what "sounded like discomfort" and went into the baby's room to find that Brown had lifted her out of her cot and was holding her.

She said the child had stopped crying by then but when she went to feed and change her she started screaming when she was moved.

The mother took the child to the GP that afternoon and although the family doctor said there was nothing wrong and there were no marks on her, the mother asked for a referral to hospital.

She told jurors on Monday: "They did an X-ray and they said her left femur had been fractured."

The mother said she later talked to Brown about it.

She said: "I asked him if anything had happened, and he said her leg had been stuck in the cot, down the side of a bar."

Forth Valley Royal Hospital consultant paediatrician Dr Ishaq Abu-Arafeh said the "oblique" fracture might have involved "twisting".

He said: "One can safely say it [this type of fracture] requires a significant force."

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard the baby, described as otherwise healthy, clean and well-nourished, spent a week with her leg in traction and was in hospital for a further week after that.

She was then released into the care of her grandmother and returned to her mother by social workers four weeks later.

Despite her injury, she recovered and was walking by the time she was 11 months old.

Brown, of Kippen, Stirlingshire, denies a charge that alleges he culpably and recklessly removed the baby from her cot with excessive force while her leg was between the bars, causing her severe injury.

Harry Couchlin, defending, said: "His position is that he doesn't know how the child got hurt."

The trial before Sheriff Craig Caldwell continues.