Warning: This article discusses the killing of a baby and attempted suicide. 

An Auckland nurse who drowned her 15-week-old daughter wants to practise again. 

The 36-year-old was teary as she sat in the dock with her head bowed in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing, three months after she pleaded guilty to infanticide. 

Defence lawyer Angela Roebeck argued the woman should be granted a discharge without conviction because of the stigma she would face, the risk of suicide and how a conviction would likely exclude her from becoming a registered nurse again. 

“She’s already lost her child, is that not enough of a conviction that she has to wear daily?” she asked rhetorically. 

“Why would [they] hire someone who’s killed their daughter”? 

Roebeck said the woman’s nursing certificate had already been suspended, and she was currently working in another industry, but she wanted to return to nursing. 

Following her submissions, the hearing adjourned briefly after the defendant began sobbing and telling the court she was not a harmful person. 

Prosecutor Robin McCoubrey opposed the application for a discharge without conviction. 

He said the fact that the registrar would be obliged to alert the Nursing Council of the conviction would be “entirely appropriate” due to the circumstances of the case. 

McCoubrey submitted the Council would be best placed to consider whether the woman should be able to practise again. 

“It’s still a deliberate, culpable killing of a child which must have consequences.” 

He said the public stigma the woman would face was a result of her killing her child, not the conviction. 

Both parties submitted that permanent name suppression for the woman was appropriate, which Justice Christine Gordon granted. 

A victim impact statement from the woman’s husband, read by Gordon, said she was not a bad person and needed continuous support from friends and family. 

He wrote that returning to work as a nurse would be the ideal path for her and the family. 

Gordon sentenced the woman to two years of intensive supervision. She added two additional provisions including that the woman undertake any treatment, counselling or programme as directed by her probation officer, and if she falls pregnant she must inform the officer immediately. 

The day of the incident 

In 2022, emergency responders arrived at the woman’s home shortly after she called 111, stating that she had consumed a toxic cleaning product and adding: “I killed my daughter. I need the police as well”. 

“I drowned it.” 

Court documents show the woman’s child had already been dead for nearly three hours when she contacted authorities. 

Other members of the household had left the house for work about 7.20am and the infant is believed to have died about 9am, after the defendant did an internet search for “what happens to a mortgage if spouse die nz”. 

The mother was found slumped in the same shower as her daughter. 

Authorities also found a handwritten note in which the defendant wrote about not expecting motherhood to be so hard, as well as feelings of being isolated, trapped and losing her independence. 

Unlike murder, which carries a life sentence, infanticide carries a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment. 

The law, which has been in place for more than seven decades, is applicable when a mother causes the death of her child under 10 years old “and where at the time of the offence the balance of her mind was disturbed, by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to that or any other child, or by reason of the effect of lactation”. 

It was a major issue during the high-profile trial last year in Christchurch of Lauren Dickason, who jurors instead found guilty of murdering her three daughters. 

Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020. 

WHERE TO GET HELP 

• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
• Youth services: (06) 3555 906
• Youthline: 0800 376 633
• What’s Up: 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm)
• Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7)
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• Helpline: 1737

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111