A woman was not upset by bruising on the face of her adoptive four-year-old son, a court heard.

Michelle McWilliam said John Smith was so often bruised from hitting himself that she got used to it.

She said she could not remember how John received all of the bruising he had up to the time of his death.

She told Lewes Crown Court: "When people die you don't remember the bad things - you remember the good things."

John had 54 bruises and three bite marks when he died from a brain haemorrhage on Christmas Eve 1999.

McWilliam and her husband Simon, of Gardner Road, Fishersgate, Southwick, deny cruelty.

Mrs McWilliam, in the witness box for the second day yesterday, said she did remember bruising when John fell downstairs and on another occasion when he fell from a chair.

John had facial bruising and a black eye but she said she did not witness either incident and did not know exactly how the injuries occurred.

Camden Pratt, prosecuting, asked whether she had taken John to see a doctor.

She replied: "No, you don't normally go to the doctor's for a black eye."

Another set of bruises, she said, were caused when John was playing at school.

He was bathed three times a week but she said she could not recall seeing bruises on other parts John's body.

She denied deliberately avoiding mentioning a small cut at the base of John's penis in a letter to an adoption panel. She said: "We had already spoken to a social worker about it."

She said John would sometimes attack her and once split her lip with a punch. The trial continues.