The defence for a man accused of murdering 17-month-old Sadie-Leigh Gardner has pointed the finger at the toddler's mother.
The defence for a man accused of murdering 17-month-old Sadie-Leigh Gardner has pointed the finger at the toddler's mother.
Sleep-deprived, with an unwell toddler who’d spent weeks being clingy and often inconsolable, a mother reached breaking point ... and then allegedly broke.
That’s the story Adrian Clancy’s defence lawyer is offering as a more likely explanation for how his client’s former partner’s 17-month-old daughter Sadie-Leigh Gardner ended up with unsurvivable head injuries in 2019.
But the Crown alleges it was Clancy, who is on trial for murder in the High Court at Rotorua, who became angry and frustrated when in sole charge of the toddler while her mother was at a beauty appointment.
The Crown told the jury on Monday that Sadie-Leigh was “floppy and barely breathing” when the then 39-year-old carried her to a neighbour’s home and an ambulance was called.
She was later found to have inoperable and unsurvivable injuries, including multiple brain bleeds and retinal damage to the extent she couldn’t see.
Adrian Clancy is facing a retrial on a charge of murdering 17-month-old Sadie-Leigh Gardner in 2019.
‘I was stressed’
Clancy’s lawyer Rob Stevens put to Sadie-Leigh’s mother, who can’t be named for legal reasons, yesterday that she caused the injuries.
When the then 22-year-old went to give her daughter a dose of Irish Moss cough medicine on the afternoon of March 27, Sadie-Leigh had been difficult to manage and didn’t want to take it.
“She was tired and miserable and you’d had enough?” Stevens said.
“I was stressed,” the mother replied while giving evidence.
“She didn’t want to take her cough medicine and you lost your s*** with her,” Stevens said, referring to language used in a message she sent to Clancy earlier that month.
“No,” she said.
She denied losing her temper, striking the toddler, harming her in any way, or causing the head injuries either on purpose or by accident.
The defence says she lost her temper in Sadie-Leigh’s room and somehow caused the injuries while Clancy was lying on the couch in the lounge, focused on placing TAB bets and watching sport.
Under re-examination, however, the mother told Crown prosecutor Richard Jenson that while she was having a vape, Clancy had gone in to try to resettle Sadie-Leigh after the girl had been given her cough medicine.
He had successfully resettled her so the mother took a neighbour’s little boy to a dairy nearby to get snacks for herself and Clancy before she left for her beauty appointment.
The mother was cross-examined for a large portion of Tuesday, with Stevens asking her about her state of mind and ability to cope with the “clingy” toddler.
Stevens asked her if she’d been sleep-deprived in March 2019, owing to ongoing rounds of sickness the child had been battling, compounded by her asthma.
“I didn’t sleep well ever since she was a baby ... I think that’s a problem for most parents,” she said.
He suggested she “didn’t like” it when Sadie-Leigh was clingy, but the mother said she wouldn’t phrase it like that.
“When a child wants to cling to you 24/7, it does become overwhelming. I don’t think I’d use the words ‘don’t like’.”
Stevens said neighbours would give evidence that the mother had screamed and shouted abuse at her young child in the weeks before the incident – hearing phrases such as “a little creep”, “a little freak”, and “f*** off”.
The mother denied using any of those words, but did accept she had raised her voice more than was ideal, especially when tired.
“I never abused my child, I was more of an impatient parent that raised their voice,” she said.
‘Grandma’ next door offered support
The defence produced a letter from a neighbour, who will give evidence later in the trial.
The mother confirmed she had been given the letter, but said the woman had first gone to her neighbour, who also had a small child, before realising she’d gone to the wrong unit.
She couldn’t remember what the letter said, but said she had “scanned it”.
Stevens read the letter, which began “Hi neighbour”, before the woman explained she was a grandmother, worked at an early childhood centre, and had heard “bubs” crying in the evening.
It reminded her of her experiences as a mum, and looking after her grandchild.
“I have no idea of your situation or if you have family close by, but at the end of a long day if you need some time out, just for yourself, or just to catch up on a few chores, I’d be very happy to look after bubs for a bit. Just pop over, okay, I’m usually home after 5pm.
“It’s what we used to do for each other back in the day where neighbourhoods were smaller, closer, and we all knew each other better.”
She reiterated she wanted the mother to know there was a “grandma next door if you need some extra mum support”.
The mother said she couldn’t remember if that’s what the letter said, and Stevens asked, “you didn’t take her up on her offer, did you?”
“I don’t believe I actually had time before your client killed her.”
A text message was read out by the defence which had been sent to Clancy by the mother, in March 2019.
“The way I’m treating Sadie is getting worse because it’s easier just to yell and lose my s*** because I’m tired, instead of dealing with her in an ideal way for her age.”
The mother confirmed she had sent the message and had been worried about her tendency to yell at the toddler.
Stevens pointed to a social media post written in the weeks before Sadie-Leigh’s death in which she revealed she was at “breaking point”, and felt she was unable to do anything without the toddler “screaming and screaming” and following her around.
She denied any physical or emotional abuse of the toddler, conceding only that she had raised her voice in frustration at times.
‘People can change’
The mother was also asked about her previous dishonesty convictions, some of which related to her having set up false Facebook and Trade Me accounts.
She had served two terms of imprisonment for her offending.
Stevens said she was a “habitual liar” and had also lied about who caused Sadie-Leigh’s injuries.
The mother said she had “owned” those offences, pleaded guilty, and said that charges of dishonesty were a different matter to a charge of murder.
“Yes, they’re dishonesty charges, but people can change.”
Under re-examination, the mother confirmed she hadn’t had any convictions since Sadie-Leigh’s birth, but had spent six weeks in prison after she was born.
She told Jenson she had been just over 17 when she was first convicted, and before that she had been involved with the wrong crowd and in need of money.
Fraud had become like “an addiction”.
“I just kept doing it and doing it.”
Her last conviction was while she was pregnant, and she was sentenced after Sadie-Leigh was born when she was 20 years old.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
