A BRADFORD stepfather broke a four-year-old girl's arm and left her with multiple bruises after beating her with a stick, a jury heard.

The 36-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, denies causing her grievous bodily harm with intent, in the Christmas holiday last year, and cruelty to a person under 16, between August 31 last year and February 23.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron told Bradford Crown Court today that the defendant cared for the little girl while her mother was at work.

In the run up to last Christmas, she complained that her arm hurt and said she had fallen downstairs.

She was treated in hospital for a double fracture and bruises were found on her body.

On February 19, her mother returned from work to find the girl's knuckles cut and bruised.

Mr Hendron said the child told her she had trapped her hand in the door at the family home in Undercliffe.

Two days later, the girl's older sister revealed to their mother that the man hit the four-year-old child with a metal bar, slapped and kicked her, the jury heard.

The woman ordered him to leave the house. The child was taken to hospital and the police informed.

Doctors found welts and abrasions on the little girl, Mr Hendron said.

Her face was scratched and there was multiple bruising to her arms and legs consistent with her being hit with a hard implement.

The court heard that her older sister told the police the defendant hit the child with a shoe or stick.

He is alleged to have kicked her on the bottom, punched her in the stomach and twisted her arm until it broke.

The four-year-old said "Daddy" was naughty and smacked her face and hit her with a stick he kept in the cellar.

Mr Hendron said she drew the police a picture of it.

The man said he treated the child like his own daughter and had never injured her.

He blamed her older sisters for hitting her and accused her natural father of putting the children up to invent untrue stories about him.

The trial continues.