A mother who suffocated her baby during a Covid lockdown has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Melody Ngawhika​ admitted killing her six-month-old son Elijah Abraham Ngawhika, last August.

She was found not guilty of his murder.

In the wake of the verdict, Justice Jagoze Pheroze convicted her of manslaughter.

The jury reached their unanimous verdict after just under 10 hours of deliberations across two days at the end of a six day trial at the High Court in Rotorua.

Ngawhika faced 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.

The fact Ngawhika killed her son was never in dispute, with both the Crown and defence telling the jury she suffocated her son by pressing his head into her shoulder after 'the voices” told her to do it.

Crown prosecutor Amanda 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.”

It was also revealed, via Ngawhika's interview with the police, that at the time she killed her son she was 'seeing a demon”.

Both the Crown and defence were also in agreement that at the time, she was suffering from a 'disturbance of the mind”.

Melody Ngawhika called police herself, telling officers on arrival ‘arrest me'.

The key issue, both Crown and defence 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”.

While both agreed she meet the legal requirement of having a 'disturbed mind”, the issue was whether that disturbance of the mind related directly to childbirth, or other stresses in her life at the time.

In his closing defence lawyer Fraser Wood told the jury the death of a small child is 'always a tragedy” but asked them not to let their emotions cloud their decision-making.

'The issue for you is the level of responsibility, murder, manslaughter or infanticide,” he said.

'Melody had offered to plead guilty to infanticide, and I invite you to return a verdict of guilty to infanticide. . . She accepts full responsibility for Elijah's death, but she is not guilty of murder.

'Her acceptance has to be at the correct level.”

He also told the jury the charge of infanticide, which earlier in the trial Justice Pheroze Jagose​​ had said relied on wording formulated 85 years ago in 1937 – was created 'to deal precisely with the type of case we're doing here, to ameliorate against the harshness of a murder charge”.

In her closing remarks, Gordon said the key issue was whether her actions fitted the legal definition for infanticide.

The trial took place at the High Court in Rotorua. Photo: Dominico Zapata/Stuff.

She also acknowledged that sometimes, 'the law and medicine don't match up on this issue”.

'The real issue here. . . is it reasonably possible when Ms Ngawhika killed Elijah her disturbed mind was due to her not having fully recovered from childbirth?”

She said Ngawhika was subject to a number of stresses at the time, including the return in her life of a figure from the past who had abused her.

Legal suppression prevents reporting anything that could identify that person.

She also asked the jury to examine a number of factors; her depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder 'carefully”.

'You will have to question and query whether any of those things arose as a result of Elijah's birth”.

She also said the psychosis Ngawhika demonstrated at the time of the killing 'centres around a lot of [the past abuser's] beliefs, demons, Jezebels, things of those kind”.

'The timing would suggest it's the reconnection with [the past abuser] that's the real cause of her decline,” Gordon said.

'The law is clear infanticide is only available to someone who suffers a disturbed mind as a result of a disorder relating from childbirth.”

-Benn Bathgate/Stuff.