Baby death in lockdown: Auckland father admits manslaughter of crying 3-month-old daughter

Warning: graphic content.

A frustrated Auckland father who was unable to calm his crying 3-month-old daughter admitted to hitting her on the head and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Jerome Dean, 22, appeared in Auckland High Court today and told those in the court that he wanted to “take responsibility” for his actions.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter that did not amount to murder before Judge Sally Fitzgerald.

Thalia Samson-Dean died on April 13 last year at Middlemore Hospital after being assaulted at her home in Papatoetoe.

The country was on an alert level 4 lockdown at the time in an attempt to combat Covid-19.

Inside Papatoetoe’s house, Dean got mad because baby Thalia wouldn’t stop crying.

According to court documents, he wanted to be the kind of father who could fix his baby and, frustrated at not being able to, he suspected that she was not his.

Dean hit the baby at least five or six times with a closed fist.

He later told police that on a scale of 10 the force he had used was seven to eight, similar to “hitting” an adult in a boxing match.

Dean was interviewed by police on April 18 and 19.

In the first interview, he claimed that Thalia had stopped breathing while rocking her in his arms.

When he was challenged with physical evidence, his story changed.

Dean accepted that he had caused Thalia’s death, but denied any intention of hurting her.

In the second interview, he admitted to hitting her on the head between five and six times, possibly more.

He had stopped breathing, his body went limp.

Dean immediately lowered her and began to revive her. The girl’s mother called an ambulance.

Ambulance officers were told that Thalia had shown flu-like symptoms and fever in the week before her death.

She was pronounced dead at Middlemore Hospital around 7.40pm.

At the time, the cause of his death was unknown. Due to the report of flu-like symptoms, the death was initially treated as a possible case of Covid-19.

A post-mortem examination conducted on April 16 showed that the preliminary cause of death was blunt head injuries.

The lesions listed included the finding of approximately 25 ml of blood in the bilateral subdural region.

‘I did it but I wasn’t thinking’

According to court documents, Dean had felt like his head was going to explode from crying.

Dean told police, “I knew those punches were going to cause, you know, some damage, but it’s just because I’m angry, I’m frustrated, I’m not thinking straight and then I’m alone, you know, I wasn’t thinking at all. I did it but I wasn’t thinking. “

Dean, who was represented by Marie Dyhrberg QC, has been in custody until sentencing on May 4.

Judge Fitzgerald also gave Dean a warning under the three-strike law.