Parents waited to get doctor

THE ACCUSED: Newton Samuel Moki.

THE ACCUSED: Cassandra Albert.

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The parents of a four-month-old Motueka baby, who, doctors say, suffered serious head injuries consistent with a violent assault, did not get medical help for their son for eight hours even though he was becoming unresponsive and twitching, a court has heard.

A depositions hearing for Newton Samuel Moki, 30, a fisherman, and his partner Cassandra Albert, 21, started in the Nelson District Court on Wednesday. The pair each face one charge of wounding their son with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one charge of failing to supply the necessities of life.

Moki, whose heavily tattooed face includes the words "Mongrel Mob Porirua", also faces an unrelated charge of driving while disqualified.

A woman, whose name is suppressed, broke down in tears yesterday as she told the court how she received a call from Moki about 8.30pm on Labour Day last October, asking her to help because there was something wrong with his son.

The woman said Moki told her the baby had a high temperature, was shaking and not breathing properly.

The woman asked her friend to ring an emergency doctor and rushed to see Moki and Albert, she said.

"He (Moki) gave me baby and I looked at him and I could see he was having a seizure, but I didn't say that because I didn't want them freaking out.

"He was spitting, and his eyes were rolling and his breathing was shallow and he was burning hot."

The woman said the baby stopped breathing when she went to take him to a doctor, so she asked someone to ring a paramedic friend, who told her he would come and call an ambulance. She said the baby's breathing was shallow as she tried to cool him by taking off his clothes and sponging him with a face cloth.

Moki and Albert were upset at what was happening, she said.

She said an ambulance and doctor arrived after about 10 minutes, and Moki told the doctor the baby had been like that most of the afternoon.

The woman said she also heard Albert tell the doctor she had dropped the baby on Friday night.

In his opening address Crown prosecutor Hugh Boyd-Wilson said doctors at Auckland's Starship Hospital said the baby's injuries included a skull fracture to the back of the head, brain damage, and a retina fold to the back of one eye.

He said Albert and Moki had moved to Motueka, with their son and Moki's 13-year-old nephew and a 14-month-old baby he had adopted from his sister, three weeks before the incident.

On the Friday night of Labour Day weekend Albert was at home with the infants by herself, Moki and his nephew having gone to Nelson to catch a flight north the next day. Another adult living at the house was staying with friends.

Mr Boyd-Wilson said that early on Saturday morning Albert went to tend to her son, and accidentally dropped him onto his head when she tripped over a speaker on the living room floor. Her son cried, but Albert was able to comfort him and they went back to bed.

Mr Boyd-Wilson said the next day Albert showed the baby to a relative and friends who checked the infant. All said he was fine, alert and behaving normally.

Later that day Moki returned to Motueka as he and his nephew had missed the flight. About 10.30am on Monday, Labour Day, a neighbour said she heard a baby crying in an "unusually distressed way" and at the same time heard a male's voice swearing and shouting at the baby, telling the child to shut up, Mr Boyd-Wilson said. Both parents acknowledged the baby was becoming unresponsive and twitching by noon.

Mr Boyd-Wilson said doctors who saw the baby before he was transferred to Starship said he had serious brain injuries that didn't seem consistent with the fall early on Saturday morning they had been told about.

Three witnesses who saw the baby on the Saturday said he was happy, alert and acting normally, and that Albert and Moki seemed to be loving parents of their son.

- Nelson Mail