A jury returned to the Supreme Court on Monday after deliberating their verdict for three days. They found Debresay not guilty of the charge of murder, but guilty of the alternative, less serious crime of manslaughter.

The Crown had argued during the trial that Debresay stomped on the girl – who cannot be named – in his kitchen in May 2005, after becoming angry that she had urinated through her nappy on to his couch.

Debresay had maintained his innocence, telling police that the toddler had fallen in his living room that night.

He leant his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes as the verdict was read out.

The toddler, her siblings and her mother had slept over at Debresay's Footscray apartment the night before she died.

She was brought to a medical centre about 3pm the next day, unresponsive, with a large bruise on her forehead, dilated pupils and no pulse, the court previously heard. She also had a number of differently coloured bruises on her chest and abdomen.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate her but pronounced her dead after 15 minutes.

Prosecutor Sally Flynn had relied on evidence from the girl's brother, who was four years old when he witnessed the attack, and medical experts who told the court the girl's injuries had been caused hours before she died, and were unlikely to have been sustained in an accident.

The boy told his aunt on the day his sister died that she had been naughty, and indicated that Debresay had either stepped or stomped on her, the court heard. He made similar claims in recorded interviews with police and family members over the next decade.

Now aged 15, the girl's brother gave evidence against Debresay via video link during his trial.

Defence counsel Dermot Dann, QC, had questioned inconsistencies in the boy's evidence about the attack and the sequence of events surrounding it.

Debresay's mother grabbed his arm, crying and yelling, "I'm kissing my son!" as guards led him past her.

Justice Terrence Forrest remanded Debresay – who has been on bail since last year – to be sentenced on November 17.