“I will regret being with you for the rest of my life, but I will never regret Hope. She is my world.”
A grandmother figure to Hope, who saw the victim shortly after the incident and had rushed her to the hospital, also told the court how her life had changed.
“The day Hope was hurt continues to haunt me,” she said.
“I believe she had a bright future ahead of her, and we are never going to be a part of that because of one person.”
The 5-month-old had been born three months premature and was transferred to Dunedin Neonatal Unit shortly after her birth.
She was released from the hospital on December 21 in 2021.
One month later, Hope was home with her parents.
Her mother fed her and read her a book before settling her into her bassinet and leaving Wallis to look after the baby.
Later that night, the defendant called Hope’s grandmother figure and told her his daughter had been crying since the mother left.
Then Wallis video-called her again asking for help, saying he had dropped the baby.
Five minutes later, the woman asked if the girl was breathing and Wallis replied no.
When the grandmother figure arrived, she saw that Hope was unresponsive, limp, pale and bleeding from her nose.
The woman rushed Hope to Invercargill Hospital while Wallis cleaned up the blood.
The defendant ran to the hospital afterwards but was denied access. Later, police found him asleep in the car park.
Hope was initially stabilised but died from her injuries five days later.
The defendant’s initial explanation was that his baby had wriggled out of his arms while he was trying to feed her and landed head first on a bottle on the floor. He thought she had “come right” but Hope later became unresponsive.
Wallis performed CPR on the victim and saw she was bleeding from her mouth and possibly her nose. He said the sight of the blood made him vomit in the sink and accidentally hit Hope’s head on the bench.
A post-mortem revealed his daughter’s head injuries did not match the explanation Wallis had given.
He later admitted: “Hope was forcefully smacked around the head, with an open hand, two or three times”.
A pathologist confirmed the injuries were consistent with the defendant’s explanation that he struck her repeatedly.
Counsel Michael Vesty described the impact on everyone who knew Hope as “ripples on a pond”.
He acknowledged family, hospital staff and police involved in the case, who had all been affected by her death.
“Mr Wallis was repulsed by his own actions, he was in a state of panic,” he said.
Justice Melanie Harland took into account Hope’s vulnerability, the breach of trust and the violence involved in the offending when sentencing Wallis today.
“It is hard to imagine a more vulnerable victim.”
The judge accepted that Wallis was exhausted, overwhelmed and stressed at the time of the offending and that it was spontaneous.
“The sentence imposed today does not put a value on Hope’s life. That is incalculable.”
She addressed the members of the public gallery, saying: “My wish for all of you is that you are able at some point to move forward”.
Through police this afternoon, Hope’s mother also released a statement.
“My daughter Hope was only 5 months old when she was so tragically taken from me in January 2022. Today is about Hope,” she said.
“As you have heard in court, she was very much loved and as she was born prematurely she fought so very hard in her short life.
“This tragedy has been completely overwhelming and devastating to myself, family members, friends and the community as a whole.
“She had the right to expect to be loved and cared by her father however today’s outcome shows clearly he was not capable of this.
“Today’s sentencing is another small step on a very long journey for us and no punishment administered by the justice system will ever allow us to see Hope’s beautiful smile again, nor does it dull the extreme pain we all feel every day she is not here.
“We all miss her so very much. I want to thank the Dunedin and Invercargill hospital staff who cared for Hope when she was born and for the 3 months after in neonatal care, and the staff at Starship where she passed away.”
