The woman pleaded not guilty yesterday to four charges after her child was found with multiple injuries that included a black eye, bruising and cigarette burns to her back and buttocks.
Melbourne Magistrates Court heard this week that the woman, 28, who cannot be named along with her daughter, has been blamed by her former lover for the injuries.
The accused, who was refused bail by a Supreme Court judge in April, was released earlier this week with the consent of the prosecution after 18 months in custody.
Hui Ting Wu, 24, was jailed in April by a judge for a minimum of three years after pleading guilty to recklessly causing injury to the girl in January last year and to perjury.
Wu, who received a sentencing discount for agreeing to give evidence against the woman, admitted this week in Melbourne Magistrates Court that she took her anger out on the girl.
She told defence counsel David Brustman she hated her former lover for what she did to the girl, but admitted shaking her "because she was nagging me and I was in the middle of a fight with (her mother)".
Wu admitted to shaking the girl seven times, which left her crying and screaming.
At Wu's County Court hearing, a prosecutor said the relationship between the women was characterised by mutual jealousy, violence and heaving drinking.
Judge Mark Gamble heard that a "child at risk" notification case investigated by the Department of Human Services after December, 2007, was closed after the mother satisfied protective workers that the girl was "not at sufficient risk".
In her statement, Wu alleged her then lover kicked the girl twice to the back at home on January 8 last year, causing her to fall and land on the side of her face.
She said the girl had her fists clenched and eyes closed and was unconscious before both women drove her to a hospital where brain injury was diagnosed.
A medical officer at Sunshine Hospital observed an "extraordinary number of bruises, scars and abrasions" to the girl's body.
A progress report on her last January found that there will be "ongoing significant cognitive, behavioural and physical impairments".
After Wu's evidence this week at a contested committal hearing, Mr Brustman described her as an unreliable and mendacious witness and that no jury could or would accept her evidence.
Prosecutor Aaran Shwartz, who conceded many of her answers in cross-examination were unacceptable and problematic, submitted the case was "still a matter for a jury to decide".
Magistrate Andrew Capell said that despite his "reservations" about Wu's evidence - he found she was not a witness of truth - he was satisfied there was sufficient evidence to support convictions.
Mr Capell said the prosecution case was more than Wu and that it was not a weak one.
The woman pleaded not guilty to charges that included intentionally causing serious injury and recklessly causing serious injury.
She was remanded to appear in the County Court in August.