Struggle over stillborn baby leads to charge

A struggle between two women over the body of a stillborn baby has ended up in court.

Judge Jane Farish said it was tragic that Tania Rawinia Wilson lost her baby, and then had to fight to get its body back from a woman relative who had stored it in a freezer for her.

Wilson, 40, appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with assault after going to the victim’s house with a male associate on April 30.

She aggressively banged and kicked at the victim’s door, then forced it open.

Wilson had a rock in her right hand when she confronted the victim in the hallway and demanded her baby.

She made attempts to push past the woman and, in a scuffle with her, slapped her three times across the face.

Wilson was charged with assault but two other charges of possessing an offensive weapon and threatening behaviour were withdrawn.

Defence counsel Colin Eason said that at the time of the offending Wilson was clearly disorientated in her reality after her great loss, and she had since done a rehabilitation course for drugs and alcohol abuse. Judge Farish said the circumstances were tragic, and reading the file made her sad about what had happened.

She offered Wilson condolences for the loss of her child.

Wilson is serving a supervision sentence for offending that occurred in Nelson, so Judge Farish sentenced her to six months of supervision for this incident, which runs at the same time as the sentence she is already serving.

She told Wilson that drugs and alcohol did not help in the long term.