Toddler Harlee-Rose Niven’s injuries ‘more consistent with strangulation’ than a fall, doctor tells jury

Dylan Berry with daughter Haylee-Rose Niven on his motorbike in a photograph produced by the defence as evidence in the trial at the HIgh Court at Hamilton where the toddler's mother, Jessica Mulford, is defending a charge of her murder. Photo / Supplied

A hospital paediatrician who assessed a toddler, five months before she died from an unrelated incident, said her injuries were more akin to a “strangulation” than a fall from a window as suggested by her stepmother.

Two-year-old Harlee-Rose Niven was taken to Tauranga Hospital with multiple injuries after what, Jessica Lee Rose Mulford, described as a “fall from a window” onto the concrete below in November 2021.

Paediatrician Dr Anita Lala assessed the toddler at the time and noted 15 different “physical findings” on Harlee-Rose’s eyes, neck, forehead, cheek, jaw, lip, upper chest, and sunburn on her arms.

They ranged from scratches to bruises to pinch-type injuries on both ear lobes, she told a jury in the High Court at Hamilton today, where Mulford is defending a charge of injuring with intent to injure from that alleged incident at Pongakawa in 2021.

She’s also defending a charge of murder following the toddler’s death in April 2022.

The Crown allege Mulford injured and ultimately murdered the toddler after building up resentment towards her and her father, Dylan Berry, as she was left caring for her fulltime, despite not being her child.

On the morning she died, Mulford had given the girl a full, 200mg ibuprofen tablet dissolved in her bottle to help settle her.

Finding her unresponsive, Berry yesterday gave evidence that he ran into the room and found she’d drunk about a quarter of the bottle’s contents.

However, the defence claim that it was Berry who caused the “catastrophic” abdominal injuries after she fell off a tarpaulin he had tied to the back of his motorbike, while giving her a “magic carpet ride”, and she smashed into a fence post.

The defence claimed she’d also fallen off her bumblebee trike the day before.

In questioning from Crown solicitor Rebecca Mann, Lala said that given the number, colour, and location of injuries after the 2021 incident, it looked more like they were caused by strangulation, rather than a fall.

“It was based on the appearance of Harlee-Rose’s injuries... I felt that a force had been applied to cause that appearance.

“The appearance of her face, symmetric swelling around the eyes, the darkness of the marks and the spots around the eyes, the injuries around the back of her neck contribute to that ... and the congested appearance of her face, was the most defining feature that day.

“I didn’t think that it was consistent that she had a fall.

Dylan Berry’s parents’ property at Pongakawa, Bay of Plenty. Jessica Mulford claims the toddler was injured after falling out of the (far right) window onto the deck, and concrete below. Photo / Supplied

“I was concerned that a strangulation, non-accidental injury had occurred.”

The “most striking thing” for the doctor was the difference with the way the little girl’s face had changed.

“Her whole face is quite congested looking. Most prominently on the cheeks and forehead, and under the jaw.

“But it’s different in colour compared to her neck and the rest of her torso which looks like a pale, normal skin colour.”

The toddler’s eyes had “black, purple discolouration and her eye sockets, and her eyes were more swollen than I would have expected.”

When assessing a child, Lala said, she would work with what she’s been told and the injuries that the child suffered.

However, with a fall injury she would have expected a child to have put their hands out to break their fall, and protect themselves.

Jessica Mulford in the High Court at Hamilton on Monday. Photo / Belinda Feek

Harlee-Rose had no injuries to her hands.

Given her injuries to the back of the neck, around the jaw line, and pinch-type marks to her ear lobes, “that’s not consistent with a story of a simple fall”.

“I was concerned that a force had been applied around Harlee-Rose’s neck... that her injuries were more consistent with strangulation than a fall.

“It would be highly unusual to injure the front of the face and back of the neck in one fall.

Defence counsel Nick Dutch clarified with Lala the amount of ibuprofen Harlee-Rose should have consumed was half that amount, given she only weighed 10.8kg.

He also put to her that she couldn’t rule out the injuries resulting from a “complex accident” that involved “more than one event”.

“That’s true,” she replied.

‘I didn’t know what to think’

In re-examination from Mann today, she asked Berry about Mulford wanting to have a baby after Harlee-Rose died.

Asked about the suggestion that he could have been responsible for her death, Berry said he loved Harlee-Rose and never would do anything to hurt her.

“She was a bit of a mini-me... was a bit of a tomboy,” adding that it was like having both a daughter and a son.

As for how he felt about how Harlee-Rose had died, before it was confirmed, Berry said he struggled to work it out.

“I was trying to make sense of it in my head,” adding that he couldn’t think where on their Hamilton property she could have been so seriously injured by falling off her bumblebee trike, as suggested by the defence.

“If she went off a step... she would have landed on the grass.”

Asked how he felt at the funeral, Berry said he “didn’t know what to think, I couldn’t think”.

“I was lost... as far as I knew she fell off her little trike.”

However, on October 25, 2022, they were called into a meeting with detectives and had the post-mortem results explained to them.

“After that did you stay in a relationship with Miss Mulford?” Mann asked.

“No, I did not.”

The trial continues.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.