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When a social worker from Child, Youth & Family, now Oranga Tamariki, visited Shane Roberts, accused of murder, to see how the twins she was caring for were doing, she found “no cause for concern.”
That’s what the jury was told in Roberts’s murder trial when the defense began their evidence in Rotorua Superior Court on Tuesday.
Roberts faces a charge: that between November 29 and 30, 2014, he murdered one of the twins, Karlos Stephens.
On the opening day of the trial, Crown Prosecutor Anna McConachy told the jury of six men and six women that Karlos and his twin brother had been entrusted to the care of Roberts and his family, as their mother, Pamela Stephens, he was struggling to cope.
Under Roberts’ care, the Crown alleged, Karlos suffered “major trauma to the head” and later died.
Roberts’ defense attorney, Simon Lance, also spoke to jurors, telling them they faced two major issues.
“Murder or manslaughter and secondly, has the Crown proven that it was this man here, Shane Roberts, who by some illegal act caused Karlos Stephens’ injuries,” he said.
“Mr. Roberts’s position in a nutshell is that he didn’t hurt Karlos, he didn’t cause the injuries that eventually led to his death.”
When questioned by defense attorney Erin Reilly, social worker Sarah Easthope-Wilson said she became involved with the twins in 2014 with a cold call to Roberts’ management.
“It was not a friendly meeting, he said he did not need us at his door,” he said.
“However, I must have done something because he invited me in and was quite receptive to my visit.”
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Shane Roberts is on trial for murder in Rotorua High Court
Easthope-Wilson said Roberts agreed to her request to see the twins to make sure they were “safe and happy.”
“They were beautiful, healthy. I did not expect to find babies with such good and healthy development. “
He also said that he believed a bond was developing between Roberts and the twins.
“The babies weren’t smiling at me, but as soon as they saw their father, they opened up, amazing.”
He said he visited four or five more times, sometimes without warning, and “had no worries.”
“I just saw those beautiful twins bonding with their father.”
However, she was less complementary to the mother of the twins.
“Evasive, I never met her,” he said.
“There were some negligence concerns against the mother.”
Murray Gray also provided evidence for the defense, who told the court about an incident she witnessed involving Stephens and one of her other children when she moved into their home in the wake of Karlos’ death.
“My partner could hear her scream and the baby scream,” she said.
“He was cursing and screaming and I could hear the baby choking.”
Gray said he had to fight his way into the locked room to find Stephens “on top of the baby, sitting on his stomach trying to silence the baby by strangling him.
“I ripped it from him,” he said.
However, when questioned by Crown Prosecutor Anna McConachy, Gray confirmed that he never mentioned this in a previous statement to police.
“I don’t like talking to the police,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the jury also heard that Karlos’s non-fatal brain hemorrhage offers insight into who killed him, according to the Starship Hospital clinical director.
Neil Patrick Kelly made the comment about the behavior of child abusers while testifying in Shane Roberts’ murder trial in Rotorua Superior Court on Tuesday.
“Very often, with suspected child abuse, the adult waits and waits for the child to wake up,” he said.
“Particularly the case when a child had had a head injury before, as Karlos had done … at some point the adult thinks that this child is not waking up and I have to seek help, but we know that time is very important. If a caregiver waits before seeking help, the risk of a poor outcome greatly increases. “
When questioned by Lance, Kelly admitted that he was “not there” when Karlos suffered the fatal injury.
“What was it or who caused it, I can’t answer that question.”
The jury also heard evidence from neuropathy professor Colin Smith, via an audiovisual link from the University of Edinburgh.
He said the level of force used to inflict the head injury that killed Karlos would have been “beyond what babies normally experience.”
“There has been a [second] episode of trauma, Karlos’s heart stopped working properly and that lack of blood flow because the heart is not working properly … at that moment it is an injury that cannot be survived.
The test is scheduled to continue.
