Police wrong on boy's death, court told

When Patricia Pickering was arrested for the murder of the 3-year-old boy in her care she told detectives: "This is all one big terrible mistake."

Her lawyer Frank Hogan told the High Court at Auckland yesterday, where she is being tried for the murder, that Pickering was "overwhelmed by sadness" when Dylan Rimoni died in April 2008 and was not the "uncaring monster" alleged by prosecutors.

Pickering, 38, is alleged to have killed Dylan by slamming his head against a hard surface like a door, causing brain damage that he died from two days later.

She has pleaded not guilty to murder, causing the boy grievous bodily harm and assault.

The accused says Dylan fell from the trampoline four days before he collapsed and was taken to hospital, and that is how he received his head injuries.

In his closing address to the jury, Mr Hogan said police had "tunnel vision" when investigating the death and drew parallels with the Arthur Allan Thomas case that resulted in a murder conviction that was later overturned.

He said the case was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice seen in the New Zealand legal system but suggested some of the features of it - "tunnel vision and compliant witnesses" - were present in the Pickering case.

Police didn't measure the height of the trampoline until part-way through the trial. "How could it be for two years the trampoline was not measured? Unless it was a measure of tunnel vision."

He said the Crown had "weaved or spun a web of mayhem and degradation" to imply "disgusting behaviour occurred" in the house Pickering lived with Dylan.

"It may not have been a model home ... But is a far cry from what has been suggested."

Mr Hogan said it was also possible Pickering's partner Doug Hoeta was the sort of person who would give someone a backhand, even Dylan, that would have "send him flying".

The assault could have happened unseen by Pickering the day before Dylan collapsed, while she was away from the house buying vegetables for dinner.

The lawyer said he had always acknowledged Pickering was the only person at the house on the day Dylan collapsed, but that wasn't so if the brain damage was inflicted days earlier.

A Crown medical expert gave evidence the fatal injuries would have occurred very close to the time of collapse, but the defence called a British neuropathologist, Dr Waney Squier, who said there was no evidence to indicate the injuries couldn't have occurred five to seven days earlier.

The doctor said she couldn't convince herself the damage to Dylan's brain stem came from trauma, as alleged by the Crown, and damage from lack of oxygen and swelling could be the cause.