A WOMAN accused of murdering her son blamed herself for the three-year-old’s death but that doesn’t mean she killed him, a court has heard.
Defence barrister Eric Wilson SC finished his closing address in the trial of a couple accused of murdering the boy, referred to as “Timothy”, at Oberon in central west NSW in 2014.
The Crown alleges that Timothy’s mother likely inflicted the fatal injury and that his stepfather was complicit because he must have known she wanted to and could kill him.
The couple says they were in the park and Timothy tripped on a rope tied to the family’s two dogs.
Mr Wilson, who represents the accused mother, told jurors on Wednesday the crown case relied on the woman’s admissions, including her comment to police that she’d thought of killing Timothy.
The woman was also recorded saying to the stepfather, “I did it and I want to die.” But Mr Wilson said the comments had a context, and under scrutiny they didn’t amount to the admissions of a woman killing her child.
He also noted the mother had volunteered her thoughts of killing Timothy to police.
“If someone was supposedly devious enough to run some sort of concoction, would they then be floating that in the limelight?” Mr Wilson said. The couple’s story about the boy tripping on a rope tied to their dogs was a reasonable explanation, he said.
Crown prosecutor Margaret Cuneen had told the jury in her closing address on Tuesday that the couple were in a joint criminal enterprise to assault Timothy, and pointed to evidence of severe abuse allegedly witnessed by the boy’s half- brother.
The court heard before his death the toddler stopped eating and drinking, and his mother tried to feed him with a syringe.
“He was … unresponsive … because he’d already suffered the brain injury that was to kill him.” Ms Cuneen said.
The stepfather’s barrister will continue her closing statement on Thursday.
Online Source: The News
