30 Aug 2013

Jury retires in baby murder trial

10:51 pm on 30 August 2013

A jury considering whether a woman is guilty of murdering her one-year-old godson has retired for the night.

Mariam Filihia is on trial at the High Court in Auckland, charged with causing grievous bodily harm and murdering Terepo Taura-Griffiths, known as Popo, in November 2011. The trial is being held at the High Court in Auckland,

The Crown's case is that Mrs Filihia struck the boy's head against a hard surface.

It said Mrs Filihia also injured Popo earlier in the year, causing a brain bleed that was discovered during the post mortem.

But Mrs Filihia's lawyer, Mark Edgar, said there was no evidence that his client caused the first injury.

He said evidence from the post-mortem, which the Crown also accepts, showed Popo had an older brain bleed.

He said that could have been triggered again by two incidents a few days before the boy died, when he fell off the deck and later fell out of the bath.

Mr Edgar said the case against Mrs Filihia was based on suspicion and circumstantial evidence, because she was the last person to care for her godson.

Justice Gilbert began summing up the case on Friday morning.

The jury stopped deliberating on Friday evening and will resume on Saturday morning.