A father was ‘abnormally calm’ moments after allegedly murdering his 10 month-old daughter while sexually assaulting her, a court heard.

Austin Stevens, 29, showed ‘no panic, no emotion’ while an emergency responder tried frantically to save Zara Scruggs at his home in Lower Providence Township, Pennsylvania in October, it is alleged.

The football coach’s alleged behavior was shared during a preliminary court hearing on Tuesday, shortly after Stevens was charged with Zara’s first degree murder. Stevens is said to have blamed Zara’s injuries on an accident that happened while she was bathing, the Philly Inquirer reported.

Officer Eric Honick told the court he arrived at Stevens’ apartment to find ‘Zara laying on the bed…with no clothes on.’

Honick added: ‘She was in only a diaper and Mr Stevens was standing at foot of the bed.’ She was unresponsive. Her skin was gray. I picked her up and put her on the floor to begin CPR. She was cold to touch.’

Honick told the court how he’d asked Stevens to hand him a piece of medical equipment from his bag, only for Stevens to tilt his head and shrug after being told it was the wrong item.

According to The Sun, Honick said: ‘(He did it) as if he was helping me find a tool in the garage. It was completely mundane.’

Honick also told how he’d asked Stevens what happened, with the dad claiming to have heard a ‘thud’ after stepping out of the room while bathing Zara to make a drink.

Stevens is accused of chatting with girlfriends and Googling terms including ‘My baby isn’t breathing,’ How do you know if a baby is dead?’ and ‘What if you don’t hear baby heart or beat’ for an hour before finally calling 911.

Emergency responders found Zara unresponsive by police at her dad’s apartment, which did not have heating, electricity or running water. She was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead a short time later afterwards.

A subsequent autopsy confirmed that Zara had been sexually assaulted and suffered blunt force trauma to the head, with that beating ultimately killing her.

Addressing Stevens’ bail hearing in October, prosecutor Kevin Steele said: ‘This case is deeply disturbing. It is hard to imagine this child’s death being any more traumatic: sexual assault on an infant, followed by inaction by the father to save her life, led to her death.’

Zara’s grandparents said the baby had gone to spend the night with Stevens when she was killed.

Her devastated grandfather Eric said: ‘This is shocking. He always respected me, and he always respected us. You would never think that anything like this would even happen in a million years.’

Zara is said to have begun walking a month before her death, and was also enjoying learning to talk at the time she was killed.

Stevens faces further charges including involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and rape of a child.

He remains in jail in lieu of $1million bond, and will be arraigned at a later date.

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