Father faces trial for child's death

Like any good father Gavin Vanner just wanted to swap places with his little girl.

It was a moment's distraction for the Taranaki farmer on August 30 this year, a phone call he had to make, which has thrown his family's life into turmoil.

As he phoned, his vivacious 4-year-old Molly took control of his quad bike and yelled over her shoulder - "Daddy, I'll go get the cows".

It left him kneeling over her 25kg body, desperately trying CPR to save the curly-haired little girl in blue overalls.

The 368kg quad bike she had just ridden across the paddock while he was on the phone rolled on top of her, killing her.

"Just like any other Dad I just wanted to swap places with my little girl," he told police.

Now he is charged with her manslaughter.

At a depositions hearing in the Hawera District Court yesterday his lawyer, Susan Hughes, said it would be up to a jury to decide if what he did that day was reasonable.

In a video interview, Vanner, 37, told police he had been busy all day, his wife Wendy and their three girls, Molly, Eva and Hillary, had gone to see him at the cowshed about 3.30pm. His wife asked him to take the girls as he left to bring the cows in.

Molly came round the corner as he backed out on the bike saying, "Dad, can I come".

Loading Molly, who had been learning to ride a 50cc bike, on the front of his quad, they set off.

"She was more than happy just to be there with me," he said in the interview. His daughter, who was known round Hawera for saying "hello" to anyone she met in the street, loved helping her father.

The court heard Vanner had waited all day on a phone call from a concrete company and, as they reached the cow paddock, he hopped off his bike to call them.

"She looked over her shoulder and said, 'Daddy, I'll go get the cows'," Vanner told police.

"It was the first time I ever allowed the kid to do what she did and I broke my own bloody rules," he told police.

"I'm thinking about the concrete truck and about 10 other jobs on at once, thinking about all these other things, and my safety just went out the back door."

He watched her ride off.

"It was like walking pace and she went to turn and I knew she was in the shit. I thought bail, bail but she didn't know how to bail, she couldn't bail from Dad's bike."

He ran to help her, hoping the bike had missed her, but it hadn't. As he checked for her pulse, she vomited and he thought his first aid training was working. But when he pulled her eyelids back, he knew she was gone.

"I knew that we weren't going to have Molly back again."

Justices of the peace Hugh Cunningham and James Ngarewa heard the Suzuki King quad bike had loose steering, poor foot brakes and tyre pressures which ranged from 3psi (pounds per square inch), to 21psi.

This made it easier to turn to the right, the way Molly had been turning when it rolled, than the left.

In the days following Molly's death the court heard Vanner dealt with Detective Paul Davison, who eventually charged him with manslaughter.

Mrs Hughes asked Mr Davison yesterday why he had not told Vanner he could face a charge of manslaughter before the video interview was taken.

Mr Davison maintained he did not know manslaughter was a possible charge until after the interview was done.

Mr Davison told Crown Prosecutor Cherie Clarke Vanner had called himself a "stupid bastard" during phone conversations, and said he was embarrassed as his community rallied to support his family.

One hundred farmers turned out to his Spence Rd property on September 7 for a working bee. Many of them told the Herald they believed Vanner had been through enough and should not be facing a charge of manslaughter as well.

When Mr Davison offered Vanner his bike back after crash analysis, he did not want it.

"It's not the bike's fault, it's the joker that put the kid on the bike," Vanner said.

At the end of yesterday's hearing, Mr Vanner was remanded on bail until his trial in March next year.