Mum cleared of killing her baby tells of torment
Friesen says her name is clear, ‘damn straight it’s clear’
For almost 30 years Terri Friesen has been carrying the conviction — and enormous weight — of a crime she did not commit.
In 1989 she was convicted of killing her newborn daughter.
She never laid a hand on the infant but, terrified of her thenpartner, and desperate to keep her other child out of the welfare system, she told police she was responsible.
Despite the baby’s father confessing and being sent to prison for the offending in 2002, Friesen’s conviction remained. But on Wednesday, the Court of Appeal finally quashed her manslaughter conviction.
Friesen, still reeling from the decision and how it will change her life, spoke to the Herald yesterday.
She had no idea what to expect on Wednesday. After her first attempt at appealing the conviction had failed, she wasn’t holding out a lot of hope when she arrived at the Court of Appeal in Wellington.
As she sat and listened in court, Friesen was waiting to be hauled up before the judges to answer questions, to tell her story again.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen . . . I was so nervous, it almost felt like going back on trial again,” she said.
It was minutes.
Justice Brendan Brown delivered the decision Friesen had awaited for decades.
“Appeal Friesen’s for quashed.”
“I was so overwhelmed . . . I haven’t even got the accurate words for how
I felt,” Friesen said yesterday. “I felt like I was being vindicated.
“I was like, is this real? It had been a damn long time and to have it over so quickly and simply, I was like ‘wow, is this really it?”’
Friesen was pleased for herself — the conviction and stigma of being a baby killer finally lifted from her name — but also for her baby.
“Now everyone knows the truth . . . it’s all about her in my eyes . . . now people know her story.”
Baby Chantelle died in 1989 from non-accidental injuries as a result of being shaken. A post-mortem examination revealed she had suffered from a brain injury and cracked ribs. Her mother and father Brownie Walter Broughton were home at the time and when questioned by police, both initially denied any involvement or knowledge.
Friesen said she was interrogated for hours, almost all over allowed. Ms conviction manslaughter is in all day. During that time she was told that if neither she nor Broughton owned up, her other daughter would be taken into Social Welfare care.
She says police told her that Broughton would die if he was sent to prison, that other inmates would turn on him for being a child abuser.
They implied that as a woman — potentially a mother struggling with postnatal depression or similar issue — she would have an easier run with the courts.
“My daughter was only 2, she was all I had left,” Friesen said.
“I remember it like it was yesterday . . . I was telling the truth and the cops wouldn’t listen, they wouldn’t accept what I was saying.
“When they said my daughter would go into care . . . I just felt that was like sending her straight to hell and I wasn’t going to let that happen to her. I did it mainly for my daughter.”
Friesen was also terrified of Broughton and was, as the Court of Appeal heard, a “battered woman”.
She thought confessing was the best thing to do at the time.
“I just felt like I had to sacrifice myself to save my other daughter,” she said.
“He was abusive . . . I didn’t know what love was, I only knew what loyalty was.”
Months after the death, Friesen stood trial. She denied a charge of manslaughter but was convicted after a jury found her guilty. Friesen was sentenced to six months’ supervision.
More than a decade later, Broughton was also convicted of killing Chantelle.
In 1991 he went to police and confessed that he — not Friesen — had caused the fatal injuries. Police did not take any action.
Then in 2002 Broughton, claiming he had found God, walked into a Christchurch police station and confessed again. This time, he was charged.
Broughton pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced on the basis that he was the principal offender who let his former de-facto partner Friesen “take the fall”. He was jailed — but Friesen still had the manslaughter conviction on her record.
It wasn’t until last year when Friesen appeared in a documentary called I Am Innocent that her appeal was mounted.
Law student Kelly Phillips took an interest in the case and contacted Friesen to offer to help. Phillips then sought help from private investigator Tim McKinnel — the driving force behind the Teina Pora case.
Together, they got Friesen before the Court of Appeal, and the rest is now history.
Happy history, according to Friesen.
Her life to date has been punctuated by reminders of her false confession.
Every time she applied for a job it stood in her way.
Every time people in Taranaki heard her name, they “knew” she was a killer.
She got in other scrapes with the law and because of her manslaughter conviction, her sentences were much harsher than they would have been otherwise.
It was the same for her kids, they too lived under the shadow of her supposed crime — their surname synonymous with their sister’s heinous death.
But now — that’s over.
“I feel like a new person, if I’m honest,” Friesen said.
“I feel so much lighter, happier, relieved — all of that.
“I feel free. Finally.
“But the twisted thing is it’s still so sad because of what this is all about, Chantelle.”
Friesen said she felt she had a new lease of life and now, at 50, believed she could start living.
“I feel like the world is my oyster now.
“My plan is to succeed in society, to be the best positive role model for my kids — they don’t have to be ashamed any more, they don’t have to keep things tight, secret.
“Now, my name is clear, damn straight it’s clear.”
Friesen said she was indebted to her legal team — Phillips and McKinnel, as well as lawyers Phil Hamlin and Lucy Johnson.
“Oh my God — they are like family to me now,” the motherof-seven said.
“What beautiful, passionate people — they are so giving.
“I couldn’t have done this without them, that’s for sure,” she said.
“They are just nothing short of a miracle, they are my angels with invisible wings.
“They set me free and they are the kinds of people I have always wanted to be.”