Michael John Curran. Photo / Sarah Ivey
A 28-year-old, on trial for the murder of two-year-old Aaliyah Morrissey, will argue it was manslaughter, the High Court at Rotorua has been told.
Michael John Curran claims he shook the girl because she wouldn't stop crying.
Aaliyah died in Auckland's Starship Hospital on September 15, 2005 - two days after she was admitted with severe head injuries, which the Crown says resulted from a vicious beating meted out while Curran was babysitting her at his Haukore St, Hairini, home.
Defence lawyer, Paul Mabey QC, told the jury Curran accepted he caused Aaliyah's death but says it was accidental. "You as a jury only have to concern yourself with one question, that is, is it murder or is it manslaughter?" said Mr Mabey.
In his opening address, Crown solicitor Greg Hollister-Jones told the jury it was murder because from the "chronicle of injuries" inflicted, it was clear Curran intended to cause Aaliyah serious bodily harm.
Apart from the head injury - thought to be caused by her head being slammed against a solid object and/or violent shaking - there were 33 separate bruises and abrasions to her head, neck, trunk and limbs. It is believed they were inflicted over a three-day period.
A 15cm by 12cm abdominal bruise is thought to have been from Aaliyah being stomped on or kicked.
She'd been beaten on both buttocks and had bruising on both ears and her face. She also had a fractured left arm and a puffy eye.
Curran had changed his story a number of times to police and others but finally admitted in a video interview that he had shaken the child when she wouldn't stop crying, Mr Hollister- Jones said. Curran had been left alone with the girl while Aaliyah's mother and Curran's wife Donna had gone shopping together.
"If you put that all together, Curran intended to cause her bodily injury. It just wasn't a momentary loss of self-control, but a wide- spread vicious attack on a defenceless infant," Mr Hollister-Jones said.
Yesterday, Aaliyah's parents Brad and Hoana Morrissey took the stand.
A tearful Mr Morrissey explained that the couple had temporarily separated before his daughter died in 2005.
On September 10, he visited his family. Finding no one home, he went to the house where the Currans lived with their three children. He found Aaliyah there with a bruise on her face and a black eye.
"My first thought was that she had been assaulted," Mr Morrissey said.
Curran claimed the toddler had fallen off the top bunk bed on to a wooden toy box.
Mr Morrissey said early on September 13 his wife and Aaliyah took him to work at Tauranga's Sulphur Point.
Aaliyah seemed fine when she reached out with both arms to hug him goodbye. Around midday he got a call from Curran saying there was something wrong with the toddler.
Mrs Morrissey gave evidence that she had befriended Curran and his wife when they first moved in two doors down in 2005.
During a three-week period when she and her husband were having marital difficulties, her friendship with Curran developed into a sexual relationship.
There had been occasions when Curran asked for sex while Aaliyah was present and when she refused he would "get annoyed and grumpy".
Curran was nice to Aaliyah while she was around but she explained Curran felt her daughter was "too clingy" and she was babying the child.
Once he took her from her arms, smacked her on the bottom and told her to go outside and play.
Mrs Morrissey wept as she recounted leaving Aaliyah overnight on September 9 when her daughter fell asleep at the Currans' dinner table.
When she went back the next morning she had bruising on her face and under one eye.
Donna Curran explained the injuries were accidental and the result of Aaliyah falling from a bunk on to a toy box, corroborating her husband's explanation.
Mrs Morrissey said when she showered Aaliyah, she also noticed a red mark across her stomach. On September 12 more bruising appeared above Aaliyah's groin area.
She said she had planned to take her to the doctor the next day.
An impassive Curran never reacted when the horrific injuries were described in court yesterday and stared straight ahead when the Morrisseys took the stand.
Mrs Morrissey will continue to give her evidence today.
- NZPA