Murder accused Jessica Mulford claims toddler’s catastrophic injuries were caused by her dad

Jessica Mulford in the dock of the High Court at Hamilton where she is defending charges of injuring with intent to injure and murder 2-year-old Harlee-Rose Niven in Hamilton on April 9, 2022. Photo / Belinda Feek

The father of a toddler – who died after suffering “catastrophic” stomp-type injuries – has been accused of causing her death by a defence lawyer who claims Harlee-Rose Niven fell off a tarpaulin he had tied to the back of his motorbike, during what was dubbed a “magic carpet ride”.

But Dylan Berry, 22, has staunchly denied the accusation from defence counsel Rebekah Webby in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday, stating, “I did not kill my daughter”.

Harlee-Rose Niven was taken to Waikato Hospital by Berry and a neighbour on the morning of April 9, 2022, after he and his partner, Jessica Lee Rose Mulford, found her unresponsive and blue on her bed.

It is Mulford, 20, who is now on trial, facing charges of injuring the 2-year-old in Tauranga with intent to injure on November 9, 2021 before later murdering her in Hamilton.

In her opening to the jury of seven men and five women, Crown solicitor Rebecca Mann on Monday painted a picture of Mulford as a strung-out 17-year-old stepmother who had reached “breaking point” at having to take over the shared fulltime care of Harlee-Rose.

Mann said various text messages would be produced throughout the trial saying how Mulford was “so over this f****** child” to the girl’s mother, Paige Niven, and that she was now “stuck looking after [her]”.

“It’s so stressful looking after a kid that ain’t yours”, she wrote.

Mulford then texted Niven apologising for her language stating, “It’s getting annoying when I’m doing everything and don’t get a break”.

“It seems clear then that Miss Mulford was at breaking point,” Mann told the jury. “She had had enough.”

“She was so over this, and I quote, ‘f******’ child.”

Berry and Mulford took over the care of the little girl around August 2021 when she was a little over 18 months old.

By that stage, their relationship had become “more committed”, Mann said, and they were living together, initially with Berry’s parents in Tauranga before shifting to Mulford’s parents’ place in Pāpāmoa.

They moved to Fairfield, Hamilton, at the end of February 2022. About five weeks later, Harlee-Rose was dead.

‘I did not kill my daughter’

Defence counsel Rebekah Webby has been grilling Berry since late Monday afternoon, but yesterday all of that questioning came to a head.

Webby put to Berry that it was he who caused his daughter’s injuries after the “magic carpet ride”.

“Negative,” Berry said, “I would never touch my daughter.”

Webby said the defence would call a witness, a friend of Berry’s, who would testify that he had told him about him giving Harlee-Rose “magic carpet rides”.

She alleged Harlee-Rose fell off and smashed into a fence post, but Berry repeatedly refuted the claim saying although he had given his nephew a ride like that, he hadn’t tried it with his daughter.

“I did not kill my daughter,” he said.

Berry said he had since had a falling out with the “friend” the defence would later call as a witness, claiming to have been told about the rides.

Webby put to Berry that they both shared responsibilities around getting Harlee-Rose up in the morning, but he denied that saying, he’d put his daughter on the potty a few times but he kept “f****** it up”, and ruining her routine, so Mulford would do it.

“Harlee-Rose used to really like seeing you in the morning ... she would gravitate to you?”

“Oh yeah, if not me, it would be Jess.

Jessica Lee Rose Mulford, 20, in the High Court at Hamilton this week. Photo / Belinda Feek

“She was quite a happy, chirpy kid in the morning,” he said.

As for the injuring incident, Webby put to Berry that Harlee-Rose was known to copy his brother’s son, as he used to climb up onto planter boxes and out through a window on to the deck of his parent’s Pongakawa home.

Webby told Berry that his mother had put that in a statement to police.

Berry said while he hadn’t seen his daughter do that, he had seen his nephew climb up there, however, he would always get in trouble.

“No, because we would have had it locked 24/7. Harlee never went out there.

“My nephew walked up there, along the planter box ... but he would get in trouble for that.”

Webby also reminded him of his earlier statement about an incident Mulford, Harlee-Rose and their dog had at Pukehina Beach which resulted in the toddler getting scratches on her chest, just a day or two before the alleged assault.

Webby put to him that they got kicked out of his parents’ house as his mother would get angry with him for not doing enough for Harlee-Rose.

“My mum’s always angry with me,” he replied.

When asked if there were repeated arguments between him and his mother about who was caring for the toddler, Berry said, “not really”.

‘I could sleep with whoever I wanted’

Earlier, in questioning from Crown solicitor Rebecca Mann, Berry said that as he and Mulford were not initially serious, and he was allowed “to do what I want as long as I told who and what I had done and what not”.

“I had seen other girls at the same time [as Mulford],” he said.

However, after Harlee-Rose was born, Mulford’s stance changed.

“She decided that I was only allowed her and only her.”

Asked how Mulford was when she first moved in, Berry said she “wasn’t the fondest ... but she managed it, made it work”.

However, soon after the resentment and derogatory comments around Harlee-Rose began about her not being Mulford’s child.

She was upset as he had cheated “when I made her”, Berry said.

Mulford would say things like, “it should have been her kid, supposed to be her kid, not someone else’s, even though I was allowed to do what I wanted but just had to tell her about it”.

After the November incident, they had to have a supervisor 24/7 when looking after Harlee-Rose, and Mulford would call him names, including, “cheating piece of s***” and “slutbag”.

The trial, being overseen by Justice Neil Campbell, is set down for two weeks.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.