Remand on infanticide

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 11

Remand on infanticide

PA Auckland A young woman who killed her son in a suicide-attempt jump over the Hunua Falls was suffering from a disease of the mind, a psychiatrist has told the District Court at Otahuhu.

The woman, aged 22, whose name was suppressed, pleaded guilty to a charge of infanticide.

Judge Gillies remanded her to the High Court for a probationary report and sentence on November 20. In the interim she was to be detained at Kingseat Hospital. Sergeant I. P. F. Williams told the Court that the defendant had led a normal married life until after the birth of her second child, a boy. She suffered mentally, but kept this problem from her husband and friends.

On September 18. after her husband left for work, she left her daughter in the care of a relative, and drove with her son. aged 2Vz weeks, to the Hunua Falls. A suicide note outlining her intention to kill herself and her son was later found in the vehicle.

She threw herself over the falls with the child strapped to her in a papoose carry-all. This suicide attempt was repeated twice, and the boy was killed in one of them. The defendant left the baby's body on the bank, and drove to a nearby house where she told the occupants what had happened. A pathologist found that the child died from injuries consistent with a fall, said Sergeant Williams. The defendant suffered two frac-

tured wrists and a severe knee injury.

Dr A. R. Fraser, a psychiatrist. from Middlemore' Hospital, said it was his opinion that at the time of the baby’s death the defendant was suffering from a disease of the mind.