The woman facing a murder charge after admitting to suffocating her six-month-old son told police she also tried to 'slice” his neck when she thought she was 'seeing a demon”.

That was what Melody Ngawhika​ told Detective Jeffery Alpe​ in a police interview played to the court at the second day of her murder trial at the High Court in Rotorua on Tuesday.

Ngawhika faces one charge, that between August 28-29 last year when the country was in a Covid lockdown, she murdered her six-month-old son Elijah-Abraham Ngawhika.

Both Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon and defence lawyer Fraser Wood told the jury earlier that there was no dispute Ngawhika killed her son by suffocating him.

The key issue, both said, was whether she murdered her son or whether she had committed infanticide.

According to the Crimes Act 1961, infanticide is: 'Where a woman causes the death of any child of hers under the age of 10 years in a manner that amounts to culpable homicide, and where at the time of the offence the balance of her mind was disturbed”.

Jurors were shown the interview Alpe conducted with Ngawhika, with her sobbing at one point and telling Alpe, 'I killed my son. . . I killed my son”.

'He was a good boy, I don't know why I did that to him.”

Ngawhika also said at the time of the killing she had 'crazy ass thoughts” in her head.

At one point in the interview Alpe asked her about marks on Elijah's neck, and she told him "I thought I was seeing a demon and I tried to slice Elijah".

'That's how crazy these thoughts are. . . Psychotic stuff.”

At that point Ngawhika slumped down into the dock, sobbing with her head in her hands.

She also revealed after the killing her daughter came into the room, and she told her to leave.

'I had done the unspeakable to my son and I couldn't explain why I did it at that time. . . I'm just crazy.”

The jury was also shown a note Ngawhika left her brother, who lived at the same address.

'Hi Bubbah​, I wasn't safe to be around, I love you.”

She said she was seeing demons on the television at the time of the killing.

'Before I started rocking him to sleep, I started seeing images in my head. . . ‘he's not a child of God' and all this stuff, and I remember looking at the TV and freaking out as there were demons there”.

In between long pauses she also described to Alpe how she suffocated her son.

'I don't kill kids, I did it to my own son, I suffocated him,” she said.

'I literally pushed him into my shoulder.”

The jury also heard the 111 call made to police by Ngawhika in which she said 'I killed my son”.

'I thought I was seeing demons.”

The first officer at the scene, Constable Shona Bronze, also gave evidence telling the jury 'the first thing Ngawhika said was arrest me I've done it, I've done it, I've suffocated my baby, and something along the lines of the voices told me to do it”.

She also revealed the moment she found Elijah on a bed in the house 'wrapped in blankets”.

'It was clear [baby] had passed.”

The second officer on the scene, Constable David Massey, also told the court he believed Ngawhika was disorientated.

When asked how he came to the conclusion, he said 'years of experience”.

He said Ngawhika was slow, vacant and gazing off into the distance.

He also described when he entered the bedroom and touching Elijah to see if he was alive, something he described as 'natural instinct as a father”.

'I knew quite quickly baby was dead,” he said.

He also said Ngawhika 'was talking about voices in her head. I heard that repeatedly”.

The trial is set to continue.

-Benn Bathgate/Stuff.