Baby-death trial told of mother's tragic past

Photo / Herald on Sunday

Her mother burned to death in a fire. Her aunt died after falling from a building and when she was a young girl, she was sexually abused a year after her father was killed in a plane crash.

The traumatic past of a 29-year-old woman, on trial for the murder of her 13-month-old son, was yesterday revealed by a psychiatrist who interviewed her in the months leading up to her baby's death.

The Crown alleges the woman, who has name suppression, deliberately left the baby in a deep bath on November 8, 2009, because she was desperate and unable to cope with looking after him and his 5-year-old sister.

She has pleaded not guilty to murder. Her lawyer, John Anderson, has told the court the death was accidental and the defendant was suffering from a depressive state when the child died.

In the High Court at Auckland, Dr Zoran Simovik said the woman had a nervous breakdown when she discovered her 5-year-old daughter had been abused while in Child, Youth and Family care.

The abuse was confirmed when the girl was examined at the Starship and that, plus the loss of her children, caused her significant stress, he said.

The court heard that the woman was born and raised in Fiji and, after her father died in a plane crash, she moved around a lot to live with relatives. She was mistreated between the ages of 7 and 10.

Her mother died from burns suffered in a fire and her aunt, the mother's sister, was killed falling from a building.

Dr Simovik found the defendant to be a "very intelligent lady and her judgment was not impaired at all".

While he did not believe she had homicidal thoughts and saw no indication she could harm herself or others, he saw "bouts of intense anger" not seen in most people.

Dr Simovik believed the "huge underlying anger" became part of her personality and affected every aspect of her social life.

Asked by prosecutor Christine Gordon, SC, if he believed the woman fitted the criteria for bipolar disorder, he said there was no sign of that disorder.

Under cross-examination by Mr Anderson, Dr Simovik said he could not exclude bipolar disorder or another major depressive disorder.

The lawyer put it to him symptoms of bipolar disorder could come and go and also change quickly from being normal to suffering from the illness.

The psychiatrist said they could.

Dr Simovik was questioned about the effects traumatic events could have on someone years afterwards.

He agreed someone could become dissociated - by not confronting reality as a defence mechanism - but believed that as they got older, they gained more strength to deal with it.

"But later in life, if they suffer more trauma ... they could then revert?" Mr Anderson asked. The doctor replied that it was possible.