The accused failed to turn up and a warrant was issued for his arrest. After arriving at court that day and talking with his lawyer, he changed his plea to guilty.
However, Philip Morgan, KC, told Judge David Cameron in the Hamilton District Court that, within a few days of changing his plea, the man had a change of heart and wanted to reverse that to keep his not-guilty plea and go to trial.
On the day of that hearing, his client had suffered a “mental health event” and didn’t want to put the mother of the baby under pressure to give evidence in a defended hearing.
“His mental health wasn’t very good. What he didn’t want to see happen was the mother of the baby give evidence and be asked to give evidence about whether she was looking after this dog properly.”
After being brought to court and having discussions with his former lawyer, the man said he wanted to plead guilty.
The plea was entered but within “a matter of days” he’d changed his mind and swore an affidavit applying to withdraw the plea.
The accused took the stand today and, during questioning from Crown prosecutor Rebecca Mann, admitted he had wanted to be sentenced that day, but only because he was suffering from an anxiety attack and just wanted the court proceedings over and done with.
“It was just what I thought was the fastest way out of court ... I remember thinking that the trial would have taken longer ... and going guilty would fasten [sic] the process.”
He recalled wanting to be sentenced that day but then said the only thing he remembered from that day was “signing a piece of paper and that’s about it”.
Mann put to him that he only wanted to change his plea once he learned that a woman in the house at the time was prepared to give evidence in his defence, something that he admitted to the court.
However, Mann said his lawyer at the time was already aware of what the woman would say.
The defendant replied that he was aware of the information but he hadn’t told his lawyer.
The accused and the mother of the baby were known to each other and, in the week leading up to the baby’s death, he had been getting frustrated with his dog continually escaping and being caught by dog control staff.
The last time the dog escaped was two days before the fatal incident on October 23, 2020.
The man, together with his father, collected the dog and paid the fine, but he couldn’t take the dog without signing a document that he was its registered owner.
The accused said he’d told the woman he was thinking of surrendering the dog and she said she would have it.
The pair had discussed changing ownership and the process, but his partner went into labour that evening before giving birth the next day.
“This wasn’t new, this conversation,” Mann put to the accused. “You had already told your lawyer.”
“No,” he replied, “I don’t think so.”
Mann said his lawyer had never advised him to plead guilty and on the day of the defended hearing it was purely his decision.
“You went ahead and instructed him that you wished to plead guilty.”
When asked by Mann how he felt when he heard the news of the baby’s death, he replied, “I was crying the whole time ... and yeah, I was in shock.”
However, when asked if he felt guilty about what happened, he replied, “No, I was just sad.
“It was traumatic.”
Judge Cameron reserved his decision.
The day of the baby’s death
The court heard that, just before 1pm on October 23, 2020, Bear the dog was impounded for roaming.
The accused then turned up to the pound and provided evidence of ownership to get him released.
The next day, the baby was born at Waikato Hospital and taken to his Enderly home with his mother.
The accused was at the house that day and overnight and he remained there the next day but left when the mother’s friends arrived.
At some point during the evening of October 25, the baby was placed in his bassinet and his mother went to the toilet.
She heard the baby crying out and ran to see what was wrong and found he was missing.
She ran to the rear of the property and saw the dog returning from the fenceline and found the baby partially buried, with obvious and bloody injuries.
Two days later, on October 27, the baby’s life support was turned off and he was pronounced dead.
