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Tom Lee / Stuff
Surender Singh Mehrok will be deported after serving his sentence in jail.
A Tauranga mother of a three-month-old baby has spoken of her grief at losing her son to horrific head injuries inflicted while picking up pizza.
Baby Royal, Richard Royal Arif Te Kakahi Winiata Uddin, died after suffering catastrophic head injuries caused by Surender Singh Mehrok on June 7, 2016.
Mehrok was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a retrial in August and on Thursday the Tauranga High Court sentenced him to seven years and nine months in jail.
Her mother, Nikita Winiata, told the court that she is only alive today because of baby Royal’s siblings and is saddened that they are growing up without a brother.
READ MORE:
* The jury decides that the death of baby Royal from ‘horrible’ head injuries was manslaughter
* Murderous intent or momentary lapse: the jury received two images of the baby’s death
* Baby’s head injuries are the worst I’ve ever seen, pediatrician tells trial jury
“I haven’t been myself since the retrial,” she said. “I’m having flashbacks of Baby Royal’s head. I can not eat “.
She said that depression from losing her son had led her to drink.
“It took me four years to find the courage to get counseling,” he said.
“If it weren’t for the other kids, I’d be locked up or underground.”
At the time of the crime, Mehrok’s visa had expired. He was a guest in the Tauranga house where Baby Royal and her mother, Nikita Winiata, stayed and were in a relationship with Winiata.
She was left in charge of baby Royal while Winiata and the main tenants went shopping for pizzas, while another guest looked after the children of the main tenant’s family.
At some point during this short trip, Royal suffered catastrophic head injuries. Winiata returned to find her son unconscious and called an ambulance. A child witness in the home said Mehrok threw the baby onto the bed or wall.
Judge Christine Gordon said that in considering her sentence, she took into account baby Royal’s vulnerability and the severity of the attack.
“A Crown expert said it was the worst head injury they had ever seen,” he said.
“They compared it to a baby hit by a car.
“There are no mitigating factors for its violation.”
The initial sentence was 10 years in prison with some discount applied for Mehrok’s initial conviction for murder and his youth at the time of the crime.
This led to a final sentence of seven years and nine months with a minimum non-parole period of half of that sentence.
Given your current visa status, deportation orders are ongoing once your sentence is completed and you will remain in custody until you are deported to your home country of India.
