Father told ambulance officer ‘it’s my fault’ after death of baby son, court hears

The Crown says a father told ambulance officers the truth about murdering his son, but later lied to police officers.

Hamuera Rawhiti, 30, appeared at the High Court in Auckland for trial on Monday where he pleaded not guilty to murdering baby Clarity Turu.

However, the 30-year-old told the judge and jury that he was guilty of manslaughter.

Opening the case for the Crown, prosecutor Gareth Kayes said Rawhiti was at his Otara unit, looking after his five month-old son while his partner was taking a break with family in Hamilton.

At about 9am on October 22, 2020, Rawhiti knocked on the door of neighbouring units, asking to use the phone.

Kayes said one neighbour told Rawhiti they had no credit and watched him run back to his unit.

Rawhiti went to another unit and asked to make a quick call to Healthline. The neighbour said he was running late for work.

However, five minutes later, Kayes said the neighbour thought better of it and went to Rawhiti’s unit and could see Rawhiti preparing to put Clarity in a pram. The neighbour asked if he should call 111 and handed the phone to Rawhiti.

When ambulance arrived, Rawhiti told one officer: “It’s my fault, I hurt him. I was just trying to get him to stop crying. I was really angry.”

Kayes said the ambulance officer also recalled hearing Rawhiti use the word “strangled”.

Rawhiti is said to have told another officer that he had “done it… done all the damage”.

He is said to have asked the ambulance officer: “Am I going to jail for murder?”

Kayes said a fire and emergency officer will tell the court Rawhiti told him he had “f…ed up, the baby wouldn’t stop crying”.

But Rawhiti did not tell the police the same thing. He told one detective that he had woken in the morning to find Clarity not breathing properly and crying

He told the detective he had tried to give Clarity a bottle before going outside for a cigarette. He came back inside to find Clarity wasn’t breathing and tried to perform CPR. He explained the injuries were caused when he used a plastic mouth shield in his attempts to resuscitate the baby.

Clarity had a number of injuries. He had a broken arm, bruising to his neck and on all sides of his head.

But by far and a way, the worst injuries were to his brain.

Kayes said the pathologist who performed the post-mortem examination on Clarity found widespread bleeding on the baby’s brain and spinal cord.

“In short,” Kayes said, “the damage to the nerves of the brain are consistent with blunt force impact applied to Clarity’s head.”

Detectives would later trawl through Rawhiti’s internet history.

They found evidence that Rawhiti had looked at four videos relating to what to do if babies stopped breathing. The searches were carried out an hour before the 111 call was made.

“The Crown says Mr Rawhiti knew his actions could kill Clarity, but he did it anyway and he is guilty of murder.”

One of Rawhiti’s lawyers, Tim Braithwaite, said his client did not dispute he “used force” and caused Clarity’s death.

“He is not trying to run from culpability… he doesn’t come to court saying: ‘I am not responsible for my son’s death’.”

He said the issue would be whether Rawhiti knew that when he hurt Clarity, death was a likely result. That would require the jurors determining Rawhiti’s state of mind.

Braithwaite also implored the jury to ignore any feelings of sympathy or prejudice they may have.

“Those are natural, emotional feelings. It is vitally important that you look past those feelings.”

The trial, before Justice Neil Campbell and a jury, has been set down for three weeks and will hear evidence from 19 witnesses.