Ratana trial ends with guilty verdict

Sahara Baker-Koro. Photo / Supplied

The mother of a five-year-old girl killed by her former partner gave a simple thumbs-up outside court today after a jury also found him guilty of sexually violating the little girl.

The jury in the High Court at Napier took just two hours to find Kerry Charles Ratana, 25, guilty of sexually violating Sahara Jayde Baker-Koro in December 2010.

Ratana pleaded guilty in July last year to Sahara's manslaughter but had denied sexually violating her.

It was the second trial on the charge for Ratana, with a previous jury being unable to reach a verdict.

But his new trial this week, before Justice Denis Clifford, ended just before 5pm when bereaved mother Chantally Baker heard the word she wanted - "Guilty" - as friends and supporters told a defiant Ratana "the truth always comes out, Kerry".

Outside court, Ms Baker gave a thumbs-up and a brief acknowledgement that she was "very happy" with the outcome.

Inside, Ratana was still protesting his innocence as he was taken away from the dock down the stairs, after already telling the court when the verdict was read out that he "didn't even do it".

Barely appearing to acknowledge his own distressed family as he left court, Ratana was remanded in custody for sentence on April 27 for both the manslaughter and sexual violation.

Sahara died at the family's Napier flat on the night of December 20, 2010, while Ms Baker was at work at The Warehouse, dealing with Christmas shoppers.

Ratana was looking after Sahara, her 7-year-old sister, and the couple's 2-year-old son.

When Ms Baker returned home after 10pm, Sahara was dead in her bed, with her sister asleep in the same room.

She assumed the children were all asleep and she had supper before resting on a mattress in the lounge.

She knew nothing of the horror on the other side of the wall until she heard Ratana in a distressed phone discussion with his father.

Suddenly fearful about what might have happened, she found the "cold" body of Sahara, and told the court this week that when she screamed at Ratana "What have you done?" he said he had raped the girl, and he was sorry.

He left the house but after being apprehended at a phone booth in Taradale about 4.30am, told police he caused Sahara's death by pressure to her chest, after she began "playing up and crying".

But he denied any sexual violation, and that that he had said he had raped her.

In his closing address, Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker focused on evidence of Sahara's internal injuries, saying experts had established they were highly unlikely to have been present before Ms Baker went to work, or to have been caused by accident, and therefore must have been caused by Ratana.

Defence counsel John Rowan QC focused on Ratana's three co-operative interviews with police, denying any sexual violation and saying Ms Baker must have been mistaken in her assertion that Ratana told her when she discovered Sahara dead that he had raped her and was sorry.

Two months before Sahara's death, a judge in Wanganui convicted and discharged Ratana on charges of disorderly behaviour and breaching community work, after hearing the couple had moved away from Wanganui for Ratana to escape negative influences.

During that appearance, Ms Baker accepted an invitation from the judge to speak and addressed Ratana: "I'm trying to get you to see we are better off in our life away from here. Wanganui is no good for you, you need to get away from here and the people you know here. We have moved away to have a proper life with our son."