A man accused of fatally attacking a baby had abused a previous girlfriend and her children to “teach a lesson”, a court has heard.

Unlicensed dog breeder Kamran Haider, 39, is on trial at the Old Bailey charged with the murder of 16-month-old Nusayba Umar - the daughter of a woman from Newham he had met on a dating website.

It is alleged that Haider - of Colinton Road in Goodmayes - attacked the young girl in September 2019 in a “fit of temper” or as a “punishment”.

Today - Thursday, March 17 - an ex-girlfriend tearfully described being subjected to Haider's abuse, after they began a relationship in 2005 when she was aged 19.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, beautician Jasmine Hossain said he also targeted her two children: “The relationship went from being a normal relationship to being a relationship that consisted of constant arguing, violence, verbal abuse, physical abuse.

“My children were very young at that point. If they would not go to bed on time or if they were making too much noise he would swear at me, swear at the children too or he would teach us a lesson.

“If he did not calm the children down or if I did not do as he said, he would raise his hand to me. He would mainly slap me.”

She said he would fly into a “fit of anger” if her children cried.

On one occasion, Haider took her young daughter into the bathroom and locked the door, the witness claimed.

She said: “I could hear her crying inside and I was just trying to get him to open the door and I heard her crying and then scream and then the door opened and she came out and she had a bruise underneath her left eye.

“She was completely red from crying and he said she slipped on the bath and hit her face on the sink.”

Jurors heard that Haider then left the flat.

He reportedly returned early the next day and told her and the children to stand outside without giving them a chance to get dressed properly.

Ms Hossain said: “It was his way of him teaching me a lesson for angering him. That’s what he said.”

Asked why she complied, she said: “Because I was scared. I knew what he would do if I did not. He would either attack me physically in front of my children or I was scared that he was going to do something to my children.”

The witness said that afterwards, she tried to avoid him but he contacted her from time to time.

In July 2010, Ms Hossain made a report to police after she refused to see him and he got “angry”.

She said: “He was not happy I was choosing another man over him. He demanded that I see him regardless and he would not take no for an answer.”

In December 2011, Haider allegedly sent a stream of abusive messages to Ms Hossain.

She told jurors: “The messages were beyond what a normal person would say. It was awful.”

Ms Hossain said she showed the messages to a police officer.

Asked to describe what Haider wrote, she said: “Something that I would not want to say to even my worst enemy.”

In 2015, Ms Hossain was invited to the wedding of the defendant’s brother.

The court was told that she also lent Haider some money, which he refused to pay back before becoming “extremely abusive”.

Ms Hossain told jurors that Haider was “not very respectful” towards his mother and had been physically abusive towards her.

She said: “He would throw things around, pushing her around. He would slap her across the face.”

Under cross-examination, it was suggested the incidents involving Ms Hossain’s daughter and Haider’s mother were not true.

The witness insisted they were.

Haider denies murder and child cruelty against Nusayba Umar between August 27 and September 13, 2019.