‘Screams had accused think girl was all right’

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 7

‘Screams had accused think girl was all right’

A girl, aged three, had screamed in pain when a man was trying to arouse her. and from that he thought that she was all right, so he put her back to bed, the accused had told him. a detective said when giving evidence before Mr Justice Casey and a jury in the High Court yesterday. Tony Joseph Walker, aged 21. ah unemployment beneficiary. has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder. Counsel will address the jury this morning and then Mr Justice Casey will sum up. Walker has denied murdering Aroha Hine Pattison, aged three, the daughter of his de facto wife. Judith Ann Pattison, in a Patten Street flat on September 22. 1981.

Walker was not the father of the child.

The Crown allege that the child died from the injuries she received when Walker gave her a beating to discipline her when the mother left to buy the tea. Messrs G. K. Panckhurst and A. M. Mclntosh appear for the Crown, and Messrs K. N. Hampton and S. C. Barker for Walker. Dr Patrick Robert Kelleher. a pathologist, said that there were multiple bruises on the body, particularly about the face. The cause of death was three haemorrhages of the

brain due to multiple blows to the head. Death would have occurred within half an hour at the most after the blows were administered with considerable force. The blows would have rocked the girl’s head backwards and forwards. To Mr Hampton. Dr Kelleher said that the bruises he examined were recent, and he had been told that various witnesses had given evidence that there were bruises on Aroha’s face and head a few days before her death. He agreed that the bruises could have been caused by a moderate amount of force. Dr Keller denied that the girl had been suffering from a slow leaking brain haemorrhage for several hours before her death.

Dr Richard Terry Caseley. a pediatrician, said that he

examined the body of Aroha Pattison on September 23 at the request of the police. There was multiple and extensive bruising about the body, limbs, head and face. There was a swelling and a laceration on the upper lip and an abrasion on the centre of the back. The bruises were of recent origin but there were also some older ones. Some parallel linear bruises on the side of the face were consistent with a blow from the hand leaving the impression of the fingers. His conclusion was that the bruises were entirely

consistent with multiple nonaccidehtal injuries. They showed the classical symptoms of child beating.

“That view’ w r as reached because of the multiplicity and variety of the bruises and their position which made it difficult to envisage them having been sustained as the result of normal falling," said Dr Caseley. There was a notable absence of abrasions. Had the child suffered the bruising by being dragged along on a rough surface or colliding with sharp objects there would have been more lacerations.

In his view the injuries were the result of repeated beatings or blows to the head and body by a hand. After having spent about four hours in town and walking from the Central Post Office to the Stanmore Road shopping centre he would expect a three-year-old girl to be tired, thirsty, irritable and grizzly. To Mr Hampton, Dr Caseley said that he could not exclude the possibility that some of the injuries were caused by a fall, but there was the' problem of the multiplicity of the bruises. Detective Sergeant John Alexander Ell said that he went to the Patten Street flat shortly after 7 p.m.

Walker had told him that he felt responsible for the

girl's death because if he had got the ambulance earlier he might have saved her life.

Asked how she had received the bruises about the face and head Walker said: “Playing with the dog.” He admitted making some of the bruises when he smacked her because he had a "fairly hard hand" but he had not made all the bruises. She had also hit her head on the heater on the Sunday.

Walker told him that Aroha was a "kid” who was always falling over and that she was naughty and had not been brought up properly. On the day before she had fallen down an outside stairway. He found her screaming at the bottom of the stairs. She had a bump on the side of her head and a bruise down the side of her face.

He had to pick Aroha up because she could not get up. She was limping and was a bit groggy and told him that she had a sore head. He was watching television when Judith Pattison asked him to have a look at Aroha as she was going out to buy tea. She thought that the girl was being sick. On going into the bedroom

he found the girl lying face down on the bed with her hand dangling over the side of the bed. Walker had told him. said Detective Ell. Walker said that when he picked the girl up she was breathing but she was “sort of light and floppy." He carried her into his bedroom, put her on the bed and tried to wake her up by shaking her but could not. It was a gentle sort of shake. By that time Judith Pattison had gone.

While he was still trying to wake her up Aroha let out a scream. From that he took it that she was all right, so he put her back to bed.

Asked what sort of scream it was Walker replied that it was a scream that sounded like she was in pain. When he got her back in her bedroom the colour of her face did not look good. Her face was pale and she was not breathing properly. ’ Walker thought that she might be choking on her tongue and he tried to open her mouth but it was clenched tight.. He tried to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but it did not work, said Detective Ell.