ACCUSED child killer Marlon King admitted yesterday to lying to the police in a statement he gave to them hours after his four-year-old step-daughter Amy Annamunthodo was pronounced dead.

King also admitted he beat his ex-wife Lou-Ann Davis while she was "naked in the road".

The admissions were made during King's third day on the witness stand, and while under cross-examination by State attorney Mauriceia Joseph.

King was shown the first statement he gave to police following Amy's death. In it, he said that Amy's mother Anita Annamanthodo left their Marabella home to go to San Fernando on May 15, 2006, at around 11 a.m and 11.30 a.m.

"You accepted that statement, you went into the box and said that's yours. You are now saying that that is a lie?" Joseph asked.

"Yes ma'am," King said.

Joseph also questioned King about his ex-wife Davis.

"I put it to you that you used to beat Lou-Ann," she said.

"Yes ma'am. But not in the way she said," King answered, in the San Fernando First Criminal Court.

King is on trial before Justice Anthony Carmona and a jury of 12, with three alternates.

King denied tying Amy by her hair and beating her about the body.

"It was as a result of those injuries inflicted by you that she died," Joseph said.

"No ma'am," he responded.

King admitted he never told the police that State witness Andre Rocke was at his home on the day Amy died.

King said yesterday that Rocke was not his friend.

On Tuesday, King told the court he would give Rocke advice, cook for his children and allow him to wash clothes at his (King's) home.

Rocke had testified that on the day of Amy's death, he was watching television with King until he (King) told him he was sleepy and wanted to take a rest.

Rocke said he walked downstairs for two to three minutes, and was smoking a cigarette when he felt the house vibrating.

Rocke said he sneaked back up the front steps and peeped through a two-inch hole in the door and saw Amy hanging from a cloth tied to her hair.

The cloth was tied over a door ledge. Rocke said the child was swinging back and forth as King cuffed her about 20 to 30 times.

King testified yesterday that Rocke's evidence was untrue. King said there were dogs from the security firm he worked at, tied on posts under his house.

King, who worked as a security guard, called as his lone defence witness yesterday, his former supervisor Daniel Joseph.

Joseph said he knew King for the past eight years.

He said he often tied two rottweilers and two pit bulls under King's house on mornings and returned for them when it was time to head out to work in the evening.

Joseph said on May 15, 2006, he brought the dogs between seven and eight in the morning and he returned for them at 2.30 p.m. because he had to take them to the veterinarian.

He said the dogs were trained.

"You can't play with them dogs. Them dogs doh play," he said.

Defence attorney El Farouk Hosein closed the defence case after Joseph's testimony.

The matter is expected to continue on Tuesday.