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Nevaeh Ager, who was allegedly killed by her father, Aaron Izett, in Little Waihi in 2019.
Insanity is not a defense available to the man on trial charged with the murder of his young daughter, according to the clinical director of the mental health center Henry Rongomau Bennett.
Aaron George Izett is on trial in Rotorua Superior Court and faces multiple charges of assault and battery, and one count that between March 20 and March 21 last year he murdered Nevaeh Ager in Little Waihi in the Bay of Plenty. .
It’s a murder for which Izett admitted responsibility on the first day of the trial.
“Mr. Izett accepted that he killed his daughter, accepts that he is responsible for her death … the physical act is not in dispute,” said defense attorney Nicholas Chisnall.
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Chisnall claimed, however, that his client should be found innocent on the grounds of insanity.
The Crown alleged that Izett, a habitual methamphetamine user, killed his daughter in a “methamphetamine attack” after assaulting her with a weapon or weapons and then placing her in the estuary behind her home to drown.
Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett said the girl had been subjected to “assault for assault for assault” before she drowned.
On Monday, the 10th day of the trial, Dr. Peter Dean, clinical director and psychiatrist at the Henry Rongomau Bennett Center, presented evidence as to whether Izett had a “mental illness” or was insane at the time of the murder.
Benn Bathgate / Stuff
Aaron George Izett admitted to killing his daughter, but denied doing so.
“There is no evidence to support that he had a mental illness and without a mental illness insanity is not available as a defense,” Dean told the court.
“He was certainly very disturbed. Tied to a bed, there were policemen around him, he was very angry and aggressive, and the second time [Dean saw him] he was nothing of the sort and this was only ten days later, and he hadn’t been treated with the drugs you use to treat psychosis. “
Dean said the only treatment Izett received was in the form of sedatives to put him to sleep, and “these are not drugs that we use for mental disorders.”
“He was not treated with regular antipsychotic drugs and he got better.”
Dean said he believed Izett’s erratic behavior at the time “was due to his use of methamphetamine.”
Evidence was also heard from forensic psychiatrist Dr. Justin Barry-Walsh, who spoke of the complicated element of Izett’s drug use when attempting to make a clinical judgment about his mental health.
“This man was in a very disturbed state when he was arrested … he got better without regular treatment,” he said.
“It got better in a consistent way with someone whose symptoms were primarily due to methamphetamine and cannabis.”
Barry-Walsh said that “there was no question that this man was in an abnormal state of mind at the time of the alleged crime.”
“Didn’t you realize that what you were doing was wrong? It is certainly possible. “
The trial continues.
