Mother gets 12 years for killing baby

Sharon Harrison-Taylor

A "tall, elegant, beautiful" woman would have had a better chance of escaping a murder conviction than Sharon Harrison-Taylor, a defence lawyer said outside court yesterday.

The comments came after the sentencing of Harrison-Taylor, who was found guilty of murdering her 8-month-old son Gabriel in her Mt Wellington home last year.

She was ordered to spend at least 12 years in prison.

The Crown had told a jury in the High Court at Auckland that Harrison-Taylor whacked the baby's head against the side of his cot, strangled and choked him and pinched his nostrils to stop him breathing.

The jury rejected a defence of infanticide and found Harrison-Taylor guilty of murder.

Defence lawyer Lorraine Smith said Harrison-Taylor had postnatal depression and post-traumatic stress when Gabriel died. She suggested a jury would have delivered a different verdict had her client come across in a different manner in court.

"If my client had been a tall, elegant, beautiful woman then the jury would have wanted to feel sympathy for her but she wasn't like that and because of her personality disorder she gave evidence badly.

"She didn't have good verbal skills, there was really nothing for the jury to like, and that's what really made it so difficult."

Harrison-Taylor maintained during a police investigation that the baby had died from sudden infant death syndrome.

Mrs Smith said she was "very pleased, delighted" that Harrison-Smith was not given a 17-year minimum jail term, which the Crown had sought.

She said Harrison-Taylor had been under "huge stress" when she killed Gabriel. She was in pain and exhausted, and suffered a personality disorder.

Mrs Smith said those factors had played an important part in the judge's sentencing.

The Crown had said the killing was a deliberate act, rather than striking out in a momentary flash of anger.

Justice Ellen France said she did not consider the murder to be premeditated.

She said there was a "unique combination of circumstances" that made a minimum 17 years manifestly unjust but Harrison-Taylor had murdered an 8-month-old baby and must serve at least 12 years.