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WARNING: Distressing content
In the weeks leading up to an Auckland infant’s death, the boy’s struggling single mother had repeatedly made it explicitly clear that she didn’t think her children were safe around her.
“I can’t f***ing calm down right now,” she admitted 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.”
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 Hospital later that month.
Details of the killing in January 2022 emerged for the first time today after the mother, who continues to have interim name suppression, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The infant’s identity also remains a secret, more than two years after his death.
She had initially claimed to medical staff that her son had been injured by his older brother, who she said had landed on the baby’s head a day earlier while jumping on the bed. She had arrived at the hospital by bus, at which point the child was having constant seizures.
“She later provided a statement through the Police 105 website to the effect that she had often hit [her baby’s] head accidentally on door frames, walls, and the edge of his cot,” according to the agreed summary of facts for the case.
“[She] said that she had taken [her son] to hospital by bus because she could not afford an ambulance fee or an Uber fare.”
Despite medical intervention, the child died the next day.
“There was bleeding around the brain, severe retinal haemorrhages and a retinal tear,” court documents state. “These injuries were the result of [the defendant’s] actions.”
Other injuries, including a skull fracture, might have been the result of the infant’s brother falling on his head as the mother initially described to medical staff, lawyers conceded.
“The Crown cannot disprove that possibility,” the summary of facts states. “The paediatric evidence is that a parent may not appreciate the fact of, nor the severity of, a skull fracture at the time it is caused. In fact, isolated fractures in infants are often missed initially and only become apparent when swelling of the scalp overlying the fracture develops days later.”
But the defendant specifically pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter via assault, not manslaughter due to a failure to seek medical attention. The summary of facts also states that the defendant became frustrated with her infant “and momentarily lost control”.
“She shook [the baby] forcefully, causing severe brain injuries that were a substantial and operative cause of his death.”
After the child’s death, police began looking into the four short weeks of his life.
They spoke to a friend of the mother who described visiting with her and the baby in Pakuranga, South Auckland, on Boxing Day 2021.
“On this date, [the infant] was 13 days old,” documents state. “At some point during the visit, [the baby] began to cry uncontrollably. [The mother] extended her arms and held [the child] out in front of her at eye level. With both her hands under his armpits, she shook [him] back and forth, saying, “Stop crying.’”
A young mother who was charged with murder one year after the death of her 4-week-old son at Starship appears in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“I’m really struggling with the kids right now and I’m crying cuz I’m stressed out about it,” she wrote. “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 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 to 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 kids…. I have nobody but myself, …I’m really struggling mentally.”
In a series of messages one week later, the mother became even more explicit with her ex about how their 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. Will come back bit late.” But he clarified that he could try to be there in about an hour to help.
“CANT DO THIS. IM 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.”
Messages of a similar vein continued the following afternoon.
“The kids won’t shut the f*** up and I’m angry with both of them,” she said. “Like really angry. I need to leave the apartment before I get too angry. If I get too angry it’s not going to be pretty. The kids are not safe at all when I’m angry...
The father said he was driving to Pokeno to help someone.
“I have no plan to coming tday,” he wrote.
“What am I supposed to do??” the mother responded. “How the f*** am I supposed to be able to be the mum I need to be for the boys if I am angry all the time and I don’t get a f***ing break????”
Police also outlined a Facetime chat the mum had with a friend on January 10, just days before the fatal injuries are believed to have been inflicted. The witness later recalled chatting with another member of the household when she saw the defendant in the background, holding the distressed, crying infant in front of her.
“With force, [the defendant] shook [her son] once, causing his head to jolt backwards, whilst saying, ‘There’s no reason for you to be crying man, I’m f***ing sick of it.’”
The woman’s murder trial had been set to begin next week.
Had the defendant been found guilty of murder, she would have most likely faced a life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years - standard in all murder cases except on rare occasions when the defence successfully argues such an outcome would be manifestly unjust. Manslaughter convictions, meanwhile, also have the potential to result in a life sentence, but it is not mandatory and rarely imposed.
The woman stood next to her lawyer in the High Court at Auckland dock today as she entered the guilty plea. She left the courtroom on bail, ordered to return in July for sentencing.
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.
