A dad accused of murdering his two-year-old adopted daughter has denied taking out his "bad temper" on her by bashing her head against the wall.

Zahra Ghulami was taken to hospital with injuries on May 27, 2020, and died two days later.

Her dad, Jan Gholami, and his wife, Roqia Ghulami, are on trial accused of murdering her at their home in Gravesend.

At Maidstone Crown Court, prosecutor Sally Howes KC alleged the toddler suffered a skull fracture caused by “significant impact with significant energy” at the hands of Gholami.

“You bashed her head against the wall, didn’t you?” she said.

“This caused bleeding under the brain lining, tearing of the brain itself and bleeding around the nerves that go from the eyes to the brain.”

But the father-of-four told jurors he went out to Tesco that morning and when he got home his son said Zahra had fallen down the stairs and was vomiting.

The former farmer, originally from Afghanistan, also denied allegations of older injuries before her death including that he banged her head against the wall and fractured her skull on an earlier occasion.

Ms Howes said: “Because this is what you do. You bang people’s heads against walls.

“Because you’ve done this before and Zahra had survived, you just walked away and went to Tesco.”

Gholami denied harming her or any of his children, and said when he saw Zahra, he was unsure if she was “completely unconscious” but Ghulami said she banged her head.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “I touched it [her head], I could see the swelling, I called my friend and told him to come here as quickly as possible. He also called the ambulance but it never arrived.”

During the cross-examination, Gholami repeatedly denied hurting Zahra.

The shop worker said: “If I would do such things I wouldn’t come to this country, there was a lot of violence in Afghanistan already.

“The reason I came to this country was for the welfare of my children.”

The court heard how Gholami came to the UK in January 2016, while Ghulami was still in Afghanistan with their children.

The couple then adopted Zahra in 2017, after Gholami’s friend, Zahra’s father, felt unable to look after her after his wife died in childbirth.

In January 2019, Gholami applied for asylum for Ghulami from the UK, and she arrived with the children to join him.

Zahra was described as a “bright, intelligent” child who was “highly curious” and wanted to find out about everything.

Ms Howes suggested there was a “rivalry” between Zahra and Gholami’s “favourite son” and that when he got upset by her, Gholami “would get angry with that little girl whether it was her fault or not”.

Ms Howes alleged the children had squabbled before the Tesco trip about going for ice cream and that something happened for Gholami to lose his temper with Zahra before he left.

She also questioned why it took Gholami “so long” to call his friend for help, suggesting he realised the consequences of what he had done and was thinking what to do about it.

But Gholami said: “It never happened such a thing before, [this is the] first time I saw her in that state, I always look after my children.”

He added: “There’s no reason for me to get angry with my children. I love them.”

He also denied having a favourite child, saying that he loved them “equally”.

About Zahra, he said: “My treatment of her was always good, the same as the other children, sometimes I treated her better than others.”

Gholami, 32, and Ghulami, 32, of Oak Road, Gravesend are charged with murder, causing or allowing the death of a child and child neglect.

They both deny the charges.

The trial continues.