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The father who failed to attend his 4-month-old daughter's inquest had spoken of a string of accidents that bruised the girl, according to evidence at his trial for her manslaughter.
At an inquest last week, Coroner Dr Murray Jamieson ruled that Alyssa Amy Te Ataahua Wilson died from
"violent shaking to the head" the day before her death.
The coroner said that Alyssa "was in the care of her father and her uncle, Tamati Kem, on the day she received the violent shaking that caused her death".
Her father, Joseph William Ricardo Wilson, a professional boxer, faced three High Court trials for Alyssa's manslaughter.
Two ended with hung juries, and a third in May last year was aborted when a member of Wilson's family spoke to the jury foreman. He will not be charged again over his daughter's death.
In statements presented to the court, Wilson told interviewing police officers of bruising his daughter suffered in the four months she was alive.
Waitakere detectives launched a homicide investigation after Alyssa died at Starship Children's Hospital on June 28, 2004. Autopsy results showed she had several injuries - the two most significant being a 9.5cm fracture to her skull, which occurred 10 to 14 days before her death, and damage to her brain stem and cervical spine.
Wilson told police that a month before his daughter died he was playing PlayStation and she "pulled forward and [fell] headfirst into the bassinet which was on the ground. As soon as I saw her falling I dropped the controller and turned to catch her".
In another incident, when Alyssa was aged 2 1/2 months, Wilson claimed his then 2-year-old son "jumped into her cot and landed" on his sister, causing bruising.
The girl's father also said his son had bitten his sister.
Questioned at Auckland Hospital after Alyssa's death, Wilson said he "didn't think much" of his daughter's injuries "because I have seen her with worse bruises before".
Documents obtained by the Herald on Sunday reveal what Wilson told police had happened during the weekend that his child died. He said he was "hooked" on a rented copy of the PlayStation game Castlevania and couldn't put the game down, even wheeling his child to another room of the Massey home when she cried.
Family and friends of Wilson - who fought in this year's Fight for Life - told the Herald on Sunday the rising star of boxing was a "gentle giant".
Wilson is a sparring partner of New Zealand's heavyweight champion Shane Cameron, who said Wilson had a promising career ahead of him. Cameron said he had no idea about the charges Wilson faced.
"He's a very placid guy, a nice guy and a good chap," Cameron told the Herald on Sunday. "Whenever I've had anything to do with him he has been respectful. He is tough, though."
Wilson's cousin and boxing manager Willie O'Neil said Wilson had shown him photographs of his daughter since she died. "He doesn't really like to talk about this but he does show me pictures of her, he loves his kids. "This has been really sad for the family, horrible actually."
Wilson's father, Paul, spoke of how he believed his son's insistence that he had never harmed his daughter - or his 5-year-old son to the same mother - and why he has stood by him during the three court trials.
"When he was originally charged I got my son outside and asked for the full story. He was just adamant that he didn't know who did it and said there was 'no way' he would shake a baby," Paul Wilson said.
"I've watched him with his kids and he loves them so much. He's a much better father than I ever was to him."
Paul Wilson said he had questioned his son and Wikitoria Kem, the mother of his grandchildren, over bruising to their bodies which he discovered during their weekend visits to his Mt Wellington home. "They said it was from falling off the couch, said it was accidents and that was it."
Joseph Wilson's mother, Lyla Froggatt, said no one from the family - who she described as "very close"- had received notification the inquest was being held despite police having contact details on file.
She couldn't name the individual responsible for her granddaughter's unnecessary death. "If I knew who did it the police would bloody know."
