Accused mother had left kids alone before, jury told

A West Auckland woman accused of murdering her 13-month-old son by leaving him to drown in a bath had left her children unattended before, a jury was told yesterday.

The woman, who cannot be named, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder.

She is accused of leaving her baby alone in a full bath for about 15 minutes and not calling emergency services, which were contacted only when her husband returned home 30 minutes after she took the boy's lifeless body from the water.

Two Women's Refuge workers gave evidence in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.

They became involved with the family after the woman's husband assaulted her and was ordered to stay away from his family, soon after the couple came to New Zealand from a Pacific island.

Women's Refuge case manager Christine Anne Scott-James said she had thought it was a bad idea for the woman to be left with her two children because some aspects of her child care were "strange".

"She was in a new country, she didn't understand the system here and she was focused on her relationship with her husband. Also, she had said she wouldn't cope with having the two children together."

Mrs Scott-James said the woman was traumatised as a result of her relationship, was susceptible to mood swings and had lost so much weight that at one stage she looked anorexic.

"I don't see how she could look after her children because she was having trouble looking after herself," she said.

Another Women's Refuge worker, Aarti Prasad, said on one occasion she was made aware that the mother had left her children unattended at a safe house where they were staying.

The woman had gone to a police station to be with her husband, who was in the cells for assaulting her, she said.

"She said that she did not care if her children were uplifted [by Child Youth and Family] and that she wanted to stay with her husband."

The children returned to live with their mother and father after being in CYF care for about seven months.

The boy died two days later.

The woman's lawyer, John Anderson, said the boy's death had been an accident and she should be discharged.

But if the jury did find it was the result of gross negligence, it amounted to infanticide, not murder.

- NZPA