The mother of a five-year-old boy who was allegedly battered to death in a Catford park by her boyfriend has told a jury that he "knew exactly what he was doing" when the child was hurt.

Lilya Breha also said that her then-partner Marvyn Iheanacho punched her hard in the face as her son Alex Malcolm lay fatally injured at her flat in Catford.

Alex died two days later in hospital on November 22 last year.

She told Woolwich Crown Court: "I was standing by the bed and he was sitting by the bed next to Alex, and I said to him: 'You are a danger to my family.'

"Just seeing what state Alex was in, I knew that he had hit him. I know whatever he did, he was doing, was premeditated."

She also said that Iheanacho over time had given differing accounts of how Alex became injured, including one claim that he fell from a climbing frame in the play area, another that he fell off Iheanacho's shoulder, and another that the boy had fainted and hit his head.

He also said that the bruises on Alex's face were as a result of him trying to wake the boy up, she told the court.

Giving evidence from behind a curtain, she said: "Whatever he did to Alex, I feel he knew exactly what he was doing. I never asked him to take my son to the park."

Marvyn Iheanacho, 39, is accused of causing Alex fatal head and stomach injuries during a violent assault on the evening of November 20 last year.

Iheanacho, of Wesley Avenue in Hounslow, denies murdering the boy.

The jury had previously been told that witnesses heard a "child's fearful voice saying 'sorry'", loud banging, and a man screaming about the loss of a shoe.

Prosecutors say the banging could have been from "repeated assaults" on Alex in Mountsfield Park/

Ms Breha recalled that Iheanacho was "holding Alex like a baby" when he returned to the flat by taxi from the park.

Alex was missing a shoe and she began screaming as Alex was "unconscious and his face was disgusting".

She told the court that she kept on shouting at Iheanacho: "What have you done?"

She told the court he "would be saying different things".

Alex was put in the bath to try and revive him.

Then Ms Breha said Iheanacho, whom she had started dating in June, and thought had been a good father figure to her son, hit her with the "hardest punch I had in my life".

She later told the jury that he "tried to strangle me, pretty much his intention was to try kill me, is all I can say".

Ms Breha claims Iheanacho had tried to stop her from calling the emergency services by telling her to "put the f****** phone down".

She said she was "panicking" by the time 999 was called and told the operator that her son was blue and unconscious.

She passed the telephone to Iheanacho who was given instructions on how to revive Alex.

She recalls him touching Alex's chest and blowing into his mouth before the boy's face "stopped being blue".

Doctors at Lewisham Hospital tried to resuscitate Alex, but a CT scan revealed he was suffering from severe brain swelling, and he was transferred to King's College Hospital.

But an operation was unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at 3.19pm on November 22 last year.

The jury has heard a post-mortem revealed bruises on Alex's head, neck, and body, while a pathologist concluded the combination of impact type head injury and blunt trauma to the abdomen was consistent with inflicted injury.