By Mike Mather of 
Jessica Mulford has been standing trial in the High Court in Hamilton for the alleged murder of her stepdaughter, Harlee-Rose Niven. Photo: Stuff / Christel Yardley
A High Court jury has found a young stepmother guilty of the manslaughter of a two-year-old girl in her care.
Jessica Mulford, 20, has been standing trial in Hamilton, charged with the murder of two-year-old Harlee-Rose Niven on 9 April 2022.
She was also charged with injuring Harlee-Rose, her stepdaughter, with intent to injure her, on 9 November 2021. On that charge the jury found her guilty.
The Crown case against Mulford was that she lost her temper with the child, "snapped" and injured her - possibly by stomping - causing catastrophic and unsurvivable internal injuries, including a split pancreas and damage to her liver.
The defence case was that something else caused those injuries - possibly Mulford's now-former partner Dylan Berry giving the youngster a "magic carpet ride" on a sheet of tarpaulin towed by his motorbike - or possibly by a fall from a trike or an accident in the bathroom.
The jury retired to consider their verdicts at 3.45pm on Thursday, and returned with their decisions just after 5.30pm on Friday.
Mulford began quietly weeping as the verdicts were delivered.
The Crown case was led by prosecutors Rebecca Mann and Jacinda Hamilton, while Rebekah Webby and Nicholas Dutch acted for Mulford.
Webby pointed the finger of blame at Berry.
"It sounds convenient that Mr Berry distanced himself by sitting outside.
"His account is entirely self-serving. Ms Mulford has a consistent story. Mr Berry's ... doesn't have a ring of truth."
Mulford "is the only person that appears before you today because she is the one that changed Harlee['s nappy] that morning."
Webby referred the jurors to the account of a young neighbour, who Berry had gone to for help after finding Harlee-Rose unresponsive.
"She said Ms Mulford had just got out of bed, and was in her pyjamas - in 'sleepy mode'.
"That's not indicative of a violent and angry person who has just snapped and assaulted a child."
"The Crown said it: Emotions fuel actions. But there is nothing [in their case] to say emotion has fuelled any sort of action here."
Mulford was likewise innocent of any wrongdoing in the 9 November 2021 incident.
A Tauranga Hospital paediatrician who gave evidence during the trial said on that occasion Harlee-Rose's injuries were consistent with having suffered a non-accidental strangulation injury.
Mulford, however, has always maintained the youngster's injuries were incurred by her climbing out a window and falling from a ledge - an incident that occurred while Mulford was shifting her car.
Webby also pointed out the paediatrician did not rule out some kind of "complex accidental injury".
"You have to determine it on the principle of beyond reasonable doubt," Webby said. "This was an unseen fall while Mulford was in the car.
Mulford's actions afterward - taking Harlee-Rose to see her father, and then to a medical centre and then the hospital - would not be the actions of someone who had just strangled the child, she said.
In her closing, Mann described the defence case as "fitting the literal definition of clutching at straws". She pointed to the various explanations Mulford had proffered - a fall from a scooter, a fall from a trike, or a fall in the bathroom - to people.
She said it was clear on the morning of 9 April that Mulford had either murderous intent when she inflicted injuries to Harlee-Rose's abdomen, or she meant to cause her bodily injuries she knew were likely to cause her death - but went ahead anyway.
It was undisputed that Mulford was alone with the youngster at the time she became badly unwell as a result of the injuries.
"There is no suggestion this is a premeditated killing. Very few murders fall into that category. Most are spontaneous acts in the spur of the moment ... mostly emotions are fuelling actions.
"Kneeling on, standing on, or a punch, or a stomp - any of those things could have inflicted those injuries."
A pathologist's analysis had found the toddler would have started showing symptoms "within minutes".
"There is no evidence before you that contradicts Mr Berry's evidence that he was outside at the time [the injuries were inflicted]."
Mann reminded the jurors that the defence counsel - Webby, with the assistance of Nicholas Dutch - had made much of the supposed "magic carpet ride" during which Harlee-Rose may have suffered her injuries during their cross-examination of numerous Crown witnesses.
"It was a proposition that was not accepted by any of them."
* This story was first published by Stuff.
