Jessica Mulford claims the toddler was injured after falling out the window onto the deck, and concrete below. Harlee-Rose is pictured with her dad Dylan Berry. Composite photo / NZME
Murder accused Jessica Mulford got up on the morning of April 9, 2022 and made a coffee before checking on her 2-year-old stepdaughter, Harlee-Rose Niven.
She was “quiet”, the now 20-year-old told Detective Jenna Hudson in her police interview, six months after the little girl’s death.
“When I went in there she had her eyes open... she looked drowsy, like that half-awake, half-asleep.
“Usually she was loud in the mornings so it was quite odd.
“Every morning she would come out and be happy as. I went in there and she didn’t want to come out, didn’t want to go toilet.
“We were thinking of maybe taking her to the doctors later that day... it was a bit concerning.”
But they never made it to the doctors.
Given Harlee-Rose’s condition, Mulford made her a bottle with 200mlg ibuprofen inside, as the toddler had commented she was “sore”.
She went back outside to talk with her partner, the toddler’s father Dylan Berry.
Mulford then went inside, then back outside again, before checking on Harlee-Rose about 10.30am and discovering her unresponsive.
Mulford is defending the toddler’s murder along with a separate charge of injuring with intent to injure from an alleged incident in Tauranga on November 9, 2021, before an 11-person jury in the High Court at Hamilton.
The Crown alleges Mulford stomped on the toddler causing “catastrophic” abdominal injuries including a split pancreas, while the defence claim it happened after the toddler fell off a tarpaulin Berry had tied to the back of his motorbike the day before.
Mulford has claimed the toddler could also have been injured after falling off her trike at home, and also off her scooter during a trip to the nearby dog park.
Asked by Hudson if she ever got sick of being a stepmum, Mulford replied, “Yeah, I guess anyone would kind of have that feeling”.
“You just want to have a break and get away... but I just got used to it eventually because it became so much of a routine.”
Mulford was shown photos of a bruise-covered Harlee-Rose taken after her admission to Waikato Hospital on the day her fatal injuries were caused.
She recalled Harlee-Rose falling off her trike the day before, and off her scooter during a trip to the dog park which saw her tumble down a grassy bank, but had no idea how she got so bruised.
Hudson put to Mulford there was “no other explanation for these except that someone has caused these bruises”.
“There’s no way for them just to appear on their own,” Hudson put to her.
But an emotional Mulford refuted the claim, saying “Yeah so what you’re trying to say, that I did it, because I’m the one that does everything for her?”
“We do have suspicions...” Hudson said, before Mulford interjected with, “No, I didn’t do anything to inflict any pain or harm on Harlee-Rose Niven... either before that morning or on that morning”.
“That’s all I have to say. I can’t tell you anything else because I have told you everything.”
In further questioning, Mulford said she was “sick of everyone thinking I’m a God damn murderer”.
“I would trade places with Harlee-Rose any f****** day. I’m sick of this bulls***.”
Earlier, Hudson questioned her around how she and Berry came to look after Harlee-Rose.
Mulford said “no one wanted to care for her”.
“I was just left to look after her all by myself,” she said.
Asked about what it was like when she was born, Mulford said she and Berry “were a bit all over the place”, while Harlee-Rose’s mother Paige Niven moved back to Katikati with her.
They then looked after her as Niven was “in a bit of a situation at the time” and they didn’t want Harlee-Rose living with her as it seemed unsafe.
“Her boyfriend would beat her up because he was an alcoholic and drunk and we were concerned, so wanted to keep Harlee out of it.”
Niven tried to get her daughter back after she fell out of the window but the request was declined by a caregiver.
Mulford said Niven didn’t get in touch with them to talk to Harlee-Rose that often.
“She would never ask to have her.”
Mulford would instead facilitate FaceTime video calls between Niven and her daughter.
Asked how she felt being a stepmum at 17, Mulford said she was “kind of enjoying it”.
“When we first got her it wasn’t really voluntary. It was Paige who dumped her and left her and didn’t come back for her.
“Everyone kind of left [her care] for me to do and I felt a bit of a tool.
“I was doing everything, I was like you need to help me more... [Dylan] was working and I need some more help, but I didn’t hate it or anything.
“I enjoyed having a little life to look after. It gave me purpose.
“It was not my child but in a way it kind of felt like it was.”
Hudson put to her the angry messages she sent Niven including one, “It’s so stressful looking after a kid that ain’t yours”.
Mulford said one bad message didn’t sum up how she felt about Harlee-Rose.
“It does not mean anything,” she told Hudson. “It’s just one bad message... Paige has sent us messages about her needing a break when she had Harlee-Rose,” she said.
As for whether she loved her like her own child, Mulford said she didn’t really think about it at the time, but now missed “her so much”.
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.
Homicide investigation continues into Turipapa Tukere's death in Ngāruawāhia.