Death smell on victim, says lawyer

By the time Angelina Edwards was taken to hospital, nothing could be done to save her life, a High Court jury hears.

Angelina Rose Edwards had the smell of death about her when she was finally taken to hospital.

And despite the best efforts of emergency staff at Middlemore Hospital, nothing could be done to save the 25-year-old solo mother.

Her temperature was extremely low, as was her haemoglobin count.

In his opening address to a jury of 10 men and two women in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, crown counsel Mike Ruffin said Angelina Edwards had bruises and burns on her face and neck when she was taken to hospital, and a strong-smelling liquid was oozing from old wounds on her body.

A nurse at the hospital described the smell as pseudomonous - the stench of dead and decaying skin.

Before the court are Moana Leslie Filimoehala, aged 39, her 52-year-old husband, Mavae Tangi Filimoehala, daughter Kalina Mamata Filimoehala, 20, and 18-year-old son Siope Fotofili Filimoehala, who are jointly accused of murder.

A 17-year-old youth, who has interim name suppression until the end of the trial, also faces a murder charge.

The father and mother also face charges of manslaughter by failing to get medical help for the woman's injuries - general debilitation and peritonitis (abdominal inflammation) secondary to a stomach ulcer.

All the accused face various charges of assaulting or injuring Angelina Edwards.

Angelina Edwards, a schizophrenic, left Whangarei in late 1996 to live with the Filimoehalas, her relatives. She was unable to cope after the birth of a son, leaving the boy with her mother, Isabel Edwards, in Whangarei.

Mr Ruffin outlined a catalogue of sustained abuse the woman allegedly received in the Filimoehala home, abuse which, he said, led ultimately to her death.

Witnesses would tell of beatings administered with a variety of weapons, including baseball bats, iron bars, sticks, fists and feet.

They would also tell of the verbal abuse suffered by the young woman and of the sounds of violence - thuds coming from the house like something hitting the wall.

In addition to the accused, a 12-year-old girl is also said to have assaulted Angelina Edwards with a piece of wood.

On one occasion, when police checked a complaint that a mentally ill woman was being beaten and abused at the house, the family pretended that Kalina Filimoehala was the woman, Mr Ruffin said.

When she said she was all right, no further action was taken.

Mr Ruffin said the family went out of their way to hide Angelina Edwards from view for fear that her obvious injuries would raise suspicion.

Even her mother was prevented from seeing her.

When she first moved from Whangarei, Mr Ruffin said, Angelina Edwards was a physically healthy woman weighing 85kg.

When she died, she was down to a skinny, pale 55kg, shuffling around on crutches with plastic bags covering infected wounds on her feet.

The Crown says Angelina Edwards' condition deteriorated over time, particularly in the three months before she died on April 4, 1998.

As well as what was witnessed by neighbours and friends, a lot happened in the house which was unseen, said Mr Ruffin.

Blood spattering inside the house "told its own story."

"The Crown contends that over time these assaults, which may have started as isolated incidents, gradually became a pattern of consistent abuse by different members of the family.

"And at no stage did members of the family ever obtain medical treatment for any of the injuries Angelina Edwards suffered.

"As her injuries got worse and her condition became very weak and feeble and the injuries remained untreated, even relatively minor injuries had a traumatic effect."

Mr Ruffin said two pathologists had concluded that death was caused by peritonitis, secondary to a perforated acute stomach ulcer which arose as a direct result of the soft tissue injuries Angelina Edwards suffered, and her debilitated state.

It was not possible to say which blows caused her death.

The Crown said that all the accused contributed, either as principals or parties, to the injuries that cumulatively caused death.

Evidence would be called to show that all except the father, who was charged as a party, were seen inflicting injuries.

Because of the fragile state of Angelina Edwards' health, each must have known that the combined effect was likely to cause death, and was reckless whether death ensued.

Addressing the manslaughter count, Mr Ruffin said the parents had a duty to provide the necessities of life, including food and medical attention, for Angelina Edwards.

"There was simply no medical attention for Angelina Edwards," he said.

Isabel Edwards told the court of making several attempts to see her daughter when she was living at the Filimoehalas' home in Chelburn Cres, Mangere.

She was told Angelina was out, had run away or was living somewhere else.

She told the court the mother said Angelina was fine and told her not to worry.

Cross-examined by Moana Filimoehala's lawyer, Paul Dacre, Mrs Edwards agreed that her daughter's mental problems made her extremely difficult to live with.