The Rotorua woman accused of murdering her infant son while the country was in level 4 lockdown last August, can now be named as Melody Mamaengaroa Ngawhika​.

Ngawhika's name suppression lapsed on Monday at the start of her trial at the High Court in Rotorua.

Ngawhika faces one charge, that between August 28-29 last year, she murdered her six-month-old son Elijah-Abraham Ngawhika.

Ngawhika spoke only once, to confirm her not guilty plea to the charge.

In the Crown opening address to the nine men and three women of the jury, prosecutor Amanda Gordon said there was no dispute that Ngawhika killed her son.

'His mother, the defendant Melody Ngawhika, was holding him in her arms and she held his face firmly to her shoulder until he suffocated and died,” Gordon said.

'She does not dispute she killed her son.”

Gordon told the jury Ngawhika later told police she had 'pushed and held his face down on her shoulder until he stopped breathing”.

At this point Ngawhika began crying in the dock, where she was sitting with a support person.

Gordon said Ngawhika called the police herself, telling them 'she had killed her son”.

She said when they arrived she turned her back, placing her hands behind her and telling them 'arrest me”.

'I've done it, I've suffocated my baby.”

She later told police 'the voices” told her to do it, and that she had earlier seen 'demons” on the television.

It was also revealed she called Elijah's father to tell him 'she had killed their son”.

Gordon said a post-mortem revealed Elijah's cause of death was asphyxia.

She also said Ngawhika suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety 'due to her traumatic childhood”.

Gordon told the jury that to reach a murder verdict it would have to be proved Ngawhika either intended to cause death, or meant to cause bodily injury known by her to be likely to cause death, and was reckless as to whether he died.

She also told the jury 'another possible verdict you can reach and that is in relation to the crime of what is called infanticide”.

She said, however, that for infanticide to be considered the jury must believe her depressive state was a consequence of Elijah's birth.

Ngawhika's lawyer, Fraser Wood, also raised infanticide in his brief opening address, also telling the jury there is 'no dispute Ms Ngawhika killed her son”.

He also said there was no dispute she was suffering from a mental disorder at the time.

He said when jurors see the video of her police interview it would be 'patently obvious Ms Ngawhika's mind was disturbed when she killed Elijah”.

The trial is set to continue.

-Benn Bathgate/Stuff.