The mother of a 10-month-old baby found with freezer burns told an Island court Thursday she discovered the girl crying in the freezer when she returned home from visiting a neighbour.

The mother told provincial court in Summerside, P.E.I., she had left her child with her boyfriend for half an hour one night last May. When she came home, she heard the baby crying and found her in the freezer.

The mother's 21-year-old boyfriend, Derrick Hardy, is facing five charges related to the incident. 

Hardy has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including criminal negligence causing bodily harm and assault causing bodily harm.

The mother told the court she took her daughter to Western Hospital, where she stayed for several days.

Doctors found the child had several first- and second-degree freezer burns on her head and torso. The baby also had a bruise on her wrist.

Dr. Joachim Kapalanga, who examined the baby that night, testified the baby's mother told him Hardy said the baby was "crying her head off, so he put her in the freezer to cool down and calm her down."

He said the mother described her baby as "crying, sobbing and terrified" when she took her from the freezer.

But on the stand, the baby's mother, who can't be identified to protect the child, had a different story.

The baby stopped crying as soon as she took her from the freezer that night, and she wasn't cold, just chilly, she said. She suggested the baby got the bruises from falling over and hitting her head.

The mother said the baby was wearing only an undershirt when she found her crammed into the freezer with the ice cubes and the hamburger meat.

The mother insisted Hardy didn't have a temper.

However, Hardy was under house arrest at the time and had to take an anger management course, she said.
 
Crown attorney John Diamond asked her whether she'd asked Hardy why he did it.

At first she said she hadn't, then she said "he just said she was really hot."

The trial resumes Friday morning.