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A young Auckland mother’s manslaughter sentence was reduced to two years and 10 months.
The Court of Appeal acknowledged her mental health issues and challenging upbringing.
The court criticised a lack of support from the fathers of her children, emphasising shared responsibility for the tragedy.
“I can’t f***ing calm down right now,” she said in one text message. “The kids won’t shut the f*** up and are making me angry. I can wait [for help looking after them] but not long before my anger becomes too much for the kids’ safety.”
A young mother who was charged with murder one year after the death of her 4-week-old son at Starship children's hospital appears in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Unfortunately, that message and others like it were directed at the woman’s estranged former partner, who had little involvement in his son’s life. Authorities wouldn’t see the haunting foreshadowing of violence until after the child had died at Starship children’s hospital later that month.
In another message she wrote: “I’m really struggling with the kids right now and I’m crying cuz I’m stressed out about it. Both of them are screaming and crying and both of them are refusing to eat. I’m having a panic attack.”
The father responded: “Yu [sic] know we are not in relation anymore?”
The father visited the household once a week but the mother said she needed more support.
“I’m asking for help with the kids and I’m sharing how I’m f***ing struggling mentally and with the kids too and you’re not even there as much support at all,” she said, adding a short time later: “I have literally nobody who I can talk to or who can help me out with the kid … I have nobody but myself … I’m really struggling mentally.”
In a series of messages one week later, the mother became more explicit with her ex about how the children were at risk of violence if he didn’t step up participation in their lives.
“I’m about to show my anger with the kids crying and it’s not gonna be pretty if I let my anger out inside the apartment around or towards the kids,” she wrote. “Their constant crying and screaming that never f***ing stops is getting on my nerves.”
The father responded: “I’m at sumone’s [sic]. Will come back bit late.” But he clarified he could try to be there in about an hour to help.
“Can’t do this. I’m about to get really angry with the kids,” the mother wrote in all capital letters, before suggesting she leave the children alone in the apartment while she calmed down in the car. “Either way, they won’t be safe until you’re here.”
During the July sentencing, defence lawyer Ian Brookie sought a sentence of home detention for his client, pointing to a psychological report in which she was diagnosed with “reactive attachment disorder” as a result of her traumatic childhood. At 18 months old, she had been found catatonic, severely neglected and undernourished before she was placed in a series of foster homes.
The disorder, which can sometimes result in a limited capacity for empathy, is known to make parenting more difficult, he said, arguing that it diminished her culpability.
“Those text messages reflect a mother who genuinely wanted to care for her children but was becoming increasingly overwhelmed,” Brookie said.
In addition to the manslaughter sentence, the woman was ordered to serve two concurrent nine-month sentences for non-fatal assaults on both of her sons. Protection of the surviving son’s identity is the reason she received permanent name suppression.
Justice Geoffey Venning set a starting point for her sentence of six years and three months’ imprisonment before factoring in aggravating and mitigating features. He declined to apply a discount off the starting point based on her reactive attachment disorder, stating the disorder was not shown to be “clearly causative” of her offending.
That was an error, Brookie argued to the Court of Appeal during a hearing last month. The three-judge appellate panel, in its decision released this week, agreed.
“We do not consider that, in order to be taken into account when fixing the starting point, an offender’s mental health disorder needs to be ‘clearly causative’,” Justice Susan Thomas wrote on behalf of the panel in a 22-page decision. “In our view, that sets the bar too high.”
The Court of Appeal further noted: “There were obviously concerns about the appellant throughout her childhood and at one stage she was seen by a counsellor to help with behavioural problems. She was rejected by her foster siblings and, by age 7, was displaying problematic behaviour such that her foster parents could not care for her any longer.
“She was thereafter placed in several different placements before moving in with her father in her teenage years, becoming pregnant at 17.”
She was first diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder at age 4.
The Court of Appeal also reduced the mother’s two nine-month sentences – for the non-fatal assaults on her sons – to five months each. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“There is nothing to suggest that her life has been transformed by positive influences such that she no longer is impacted by the disorder or that its effects are significantly reduced,” Justice Thomas wrote. “Although the [psychological] report does not state in terms that the appellant still suffers from RAD, we consider the tenor of the report makes it clear she does.”
In a previous Court of Appeal case, it was noted, “this court observed that there can and should be only limited discounts for those who kill innocent children, whatever the difficulty of their personal situations”. But the court went on to add: “Obviously, the sentencing approach can be more lenient where recognised psychiatric or psychological disorders are clearly established as causative.”
The Court of Appeal allowed a starting point of five and a half years’ imprisonment, nine months shorter than was determined by the High Court. The appellate justices then allowed further discounts for her youth, prospects for rehabilitation and “to reflect that tragic background which resulted in her being inadequately prepared for motherhood”. The discounts should also reflect that she was “effectively abandoned” by the children’s fathers, the justices said.
“We pause here to emphasise the need to condemn what appears, at least on the evidence before us, to have been the failure of both fathers to perform their obligations as parents,” the appellate panel said as an aside. “[The deceased child’s] father had some involvement but seems to have taken no steps to respond to the appellant’s clear signals that she was not coping and that she feared what she might do.
“The appellant is the only parent held accountable for the manslaughter and assaults ... yet there were two other adults who must be considered as sharing some responsibility.”
The Court of Appeal also reduced the mother’s two nine-month sentences – for the non-fatal assaults on her sons – to five months each. However, because they were already concurrent with the manslaughter sentence, those reductions do not affect the overall sentence.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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