Cherish trial: Grandmother admits manslaughter

Dominion Post

IN COURT: Joanne Jasmine Tahuri, 57, of Marton.

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A 57-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of her three-year-old grandchild.

Joanne Jasmine Tahuri, 57, of Marton,  was on trial in the High Court at Whanganui for the murder of her granddaughter Cherishsiliala Tahuri-Wright, known as Cherish.

The Porirua three-year-old died in Wellington Hospital on February 19 last year.

The Crown had alleged Tahuri hit her hard enough to cause a subdural haematoma, or brain bleeding, two days earlier.

The prosecution case had not ended when Tahuri entered the guilty plea to manslaughter yesterday.

A sentencing date has not been set yet.

Earlier the trial heard Tahuri appeared ''flighty'' while caring for Cherish's three-year-old cousin. ''You could hear her [Tahuri] giving him [the cousin] a bath and he would be crying and she would be telling him to shut up, '' Mrs Stokes said. ''He was always crying during bath time, sometimes she would use the F-word as well. They were very loud.''

Mrs Stokes said that on at least one occasion she had seen Tahuri give the cousin an open-handed smack for running away from her.

Forensic scientist David Neale, who examined Tahuri's house in Marton, said he found blood on walls inside and outside, as well as on a towel and bed. Most appeared to have been diluted with water, but a blood pattern on one of the inside walls was not.

''In my opinion this is not just due to dripping. There has been some force behind creating the blood in this pattern.''

Under cross examination, he said: ''It could be blood that accumulated in the airway or from a lung wound  a cough, for example, with blood in the mouth.''

- © Fairfax NZ News