Accused mother asked for help

A mother accused of murdering her baby son by leaving him to drown in a deep bath told police she called for professional help before his death because she was "incapable" of looking after her children.

She wanted to keep her daughter, who was just about to start school, but didn't feel she could cope with the baby.

Both children were taken from the woman by Child Youth and Family and returned to her fulltime care on November 6, 2009. Two days later the baby boy, who was 13 months old, drowned in the bath.

Police allege he was deliberately left to drown - with water almost reaching his shoulders - because the mother, who has name suppression, was "desperate".

She has pleaded not guilty to murder. When the trial began on Monday, the woman's defence barrister, John Anderson, said she was in a depressive state when the boy died and called the boy's death "accidental".

An interview between the woman and Detective Michelle Shepherd was played to the jury at the High Court at Auckland today.

She told the detective her husband, who cannot be named, began beating her shortly after they moved to Auckland from a Pacific Island.

They would begin as verbal arguments that turned into "punching and pushing".

Asked why he did that she said: "It was the way I talked to him. I infuriated him."

She worked in a health-related field in her home country but didn't work as much in Auckland and had no family support.

The husband was arrested on domestic violence charges and she and the children went to live in a refuge.

When she tried to have charges against the husband dropped, case managers at the refuge alerted Child Youth and Family who took the children away from her.

Asked to comment about losing her kids by police, she said she "didn't feel good about it".

"I couldn't stay home actually, I had to go out. My husband was out and my kids were gone... As soon as they went I walked away as well."

However, she wanted the children back after learning of alleged sexual abuse of her daughter by a teenage boy while she was in CYF care.

But within days she felt she was "incapable" of looking after them.

"Taking care of them...I wasn't even taking care of myself," she told Detective Shepherd.

The trial earlier heard she soaked the baby in the bath and gave him toys to play with before walking out and closing the door.

In the kitchen she made her daughter breakfast and, after 15 minutes, returned to the bathroom.

In response to finding him slumped face-down in the water she bundled him in blankets and towels and placed him on the bed - but didn't call for help.

Prosecutors have told the jury she spent the next 25 minutes on Facebook and looking at an internet news site before her partner arrived home from work and she told him the baby was dead.

The trial continues.