Bath deep to keep baby warm, accused mother tells court

File photo / Martin Sykes

A woman accused of deliberately leaving her baby boy to drown has told a court she ran the bath deep because she wanted to keep him warm and had no fears about leaving him by himself.

The 29 year-old, who cannot be named, put him in the bath with his "fish toys" and then went to make breakfast for her other child, a 5 year-old girl.

The High Court at Auckland heard today the woman pulled the bathroom door almost shut to stop a draft and went into the kitchen. She told her barrister, John Anderson, she wasn't scared about leaving him by himself because she thought he was strong enough to sit up.

About 15 minutes later she "suddenly" remembered he was in the bath.

"I went back into the bathroom and saw [baby]. He was on his stomach face down into the bath. I froze."

The woman has pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds his death was accidental. The jury were told yesterday, in Mr Anderson's opening address, that if they were sure she caused the death then they could find her guilty of infanticide.

Infanticide is a partial defence to murder. The jury will have to be sure her mind was disturbed because she hadn't fully recovered from giving birth.

Upon discovering his body she said she cant remember feeling anything. She picked him up and checked his pulse.

"He wasn't breathing, his body was quite heavy... His mouth was blue. I knew he was dead."

She didn't call 111 because she didn't want her husband to come home and see "the commotion". When he did get home she remembered being numb and in shock - but has no recollection of spending time on the computer.

Prosecutors allege she spent 25 minutes on the internet, looking at Facebook and a news site, before her husband came home from work.

Asked how she felt now about her son's death she said: " I push the thought out of my mind. It's just terrible, it's too horrible to think about."

Her lawyer said the Crown was alleging she deliberately left the baby in the bath to which she replied: "It's not true. I didn't intend for [name suppressed] to drown. I thought he would play with the [toy] fishes and thought he was strong enough."

The court has heard she didn't feel like she was able to cope with looking after her children in the months before the drowning. She felt low, had no energy and didn't like talking.

"I didn't feel like I could look after myself let alone the kids."

The children were in the care of Child Youth and Family but were returned to her just two days before the baby drowned, on November 8, 2009.

The woman has told the court she got upset when her 5 year-old daughter told her she was sexually abused by a boy while in CYF care.

"I was devastated because it reminded me of when I was abused when I was about 7 years-old."

She said she had been raped three times when she was younger. Her father died in a plane crash when she was six and her mother and aunt both committed suicide, her mother burning in a fire and her aunt jumping from a building.

The trial continues.