Moorheads likely to be together for birth

8.45am

Jan and Deborah Moorhead will probably be together for the birth of their child in three months.

The couple were jailed for five years yesterday for the manslaughter death last year of their six-month-old baby son Caleb, after they refused to get the dying infant medical care.

During sentencing in the High Court in Auckland, crown prosecutor Christine Gordon revealed Mrs Moorhead, 34, was nearly six months pregnant -- a condition which later prompted Justice Harrison to say the conception could be viewed as cynical, particularly as Mrs Moorhead knew she was about to stand trial for manslaughter and could have the child removed after it was born.

Today prison authorities said there were provisions for a woman inmate's partner to be at the birth, even if he was a serving inmate.

Mrs Moorhead would have access to full midwifery and obstetric services and would be taken to hospital for the birth of her child, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kate Dowling.

Once the baby was born it would stay with Mrs Moorhead for a couple of days and would then go to a caregiver but be returned to prison daily for breastfeeding, milk expression and bonding sessions, with each session probably an hour long. The visits would last six months.

Police said after the sentencing yesterday they did not want the baby to stay with the Moorheads and would recommend to the Department of Child Youth and Family Services it be removed because of the manslaughter conviction.

During the trial the court heard the Moorheads trusted God and herbal remedies to heal their son, even though Mrs Moorhead had written in her baby's health book that Caleb was deteriorating and she feared he would die.

During police interviews the couple said they had done nothing wrong and would follow the same course of action again.

Ms Dowling said today the couple's strict vegan diet which excluded fish, meat and dairy products, would also be catered for in prison.

The trial heard Mrs Moorhead's vegan diet was responsible for her vitamin B12 deficiency. Because her breastmilk was Caleb's only food source, that deficiency was passed on to him and ultimately resulted in his death from broncho-pneumonia and anaemia, associated with severe brain damage.

Doctors at Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland pleaded with the Moorheads to get Caleb treatment but they went into hiding two weeks before he died on March 29 last year. The court heard a vitamin B12 injection would have saved Caleb's life up to half and hour before he died.

The vegan diet was part of the wide range of inmates' cultural, dietary and religious needs catered for in prison.

"What the inmate needs to do is simply state in writing they are vegan and wish to be served vegan food and our kitchens take that into account and serve vegan food," Ms Dowling said.

She said vegan food would be available immediately the Moorheads arrived, particularly at the Mt Eden prison where both Moorheads were likely to have spent their first night behind bars before they were assessed for long-term prison accommodation.

The Moorheads were sentenced under the terms of the Criminal Justice Act, which means they would serve two-thirds of their sentence before they could apply for release in September 2005.

- NZPA