Guilty of manslaughter

A mother who suffocated her baby during a Covid lockdown has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Melody Ngawhika admitted killing her six-month-old son Elijah Abraham Ngawhika, last August. She was found not guilty of his murder. In the wake of the verdict, Justice Jagoze Pheroze convicted her of manslaughter.

The jury reached their unanimous verdict after just under 10 hours of deliberations across two days at the end of a six-day trial at the High Court in Rotorua.

Ngawhika faced one charge: that between August 28-29 last year, when the country was in a Covid lockdown, she murdered her six-month-old son Elijah.

The fact Ngawhika killed her son was never in dispute, with both the Crown and defence telling the jury she suffocated her son by pressing his head into her shoulder after ‘‘the voices’’ told her to do it.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon said Ngawhika called the police herself, telling them ‘‘she had killed her son’’.

She said when they arrived she turned her back, placing her hands behind her and telling them ‘‘arrest me’’.

‘‘I’ve done it, I’ve suffocated my baby.’’ It was also revealed, via Ngawhika’s interview with the police, that at the time she killed her son she was ‘‘seeing a demon’’.

Both the Crown and defence were also in agreement that at the time, she was suffering from a ‘‘disturbance of the mind’’.