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Heated scenes erupted outside Manukau District Court this morning as two family members of an infant killed earlier this year were knocked over by a car transporting the woman accused of the child's murder.
The woman, 30, earlier had bail and name suppression continued when she appeared in court charged with murdering 10-month-old Jyniah Te Awa.
Jyniah, from Manurewa, south Auckland, died in Starship Hospital on September 24 of non-accidental brain injuries after being hospitalised the day before.
About 40 of Jyniah's family attended the hearing, many wearing t-shirts in memory of the girl. There were yells of "you bitch" and "you killed our f*****g baby" when she left the court after Judge Gus Andree Wiltens agreed to continue the accused woman's bail.
Most of them waited at the back of the court for the woman, who was the caregiver of Jyniah at the time she suffered her fatal injuries.
Some of them crowded the car taking the woman away when it emerged slowly from the back of the court, some hitting the car as it was leaving.
The car then appeared to accelerate, knocking two women to the ground as it left the scene. The women appeared to have been uninjured or suffered minor injuries.
Police and security guards were required after some of Jyniah's family members got into a scuffle with remaining members of the accused's family.
The crowd had dispersed within about 15 minutes.
Judge Wiltens allowed name suppression to continue for the accused woman due to the impact that publication could have on her eight-year-old child.
He continued her bail with an extra proviso that she attend an appointment at Auckland's Mason Clinic for psychiatric patients later this month.
A spokeswoman for Jyniah's family, Tania Cassidy, said she couldn't understand why the woman was bailed.
"Something's got to be done about the bail laws," she said.
Ms Cassidy, who was Jyniah's great-aunt, said the girl had been a very happy child and the family was devastated by her death.
The woman's bail conditions include that she live at a Hamilton address and not associate with the immediate family of Jyniah.
Destiny Church spokesman and Family Party leader Richard Lewis had attended the accused woman's first appearance in court on October 30 but was not seen at court today.
Mr Lewis said after her first appearance that the family had asked the church for help and the church helped facilitate them coming forward to police.
Jyniah was taken to Middlemore Hospital from a Manurewa address on September 23 after people at the address called for an ambulance.
She was subsequently taken to Starship Hospital for children in central Auckland, where she died the next day. A post-mortem revealed she died of a non-accidental brain injury.
The accused woman is due to reappear in Manukau District Court on February 13.
- NZPA
