'I didn't do it' - Carer sobs at guilty verdict

By Andrew Koubaridis

A woman accused of murdering a three-year-old boy in her care has been found guilty of murder by a High Court jury today.

But Patricia Angela Pickering, 38, was found not guilty of causing three year old Dylan Rimoni grievous bodily harm. She was also found not guilty of assault.

The jury had been deliberating at the High Court at Auckland for over eight hours.

The murder verdict was a majority one, with 11 jurors supporting the guilty verdict.

Pickering has been remanded in custody until sentencing on July 30.

She burst into tears after the verdicts were delivered, burying her head in her hands and saying "but I didn't do it".

The Crown said she slammed Dylan's head against an "unforgiving' surface, like a door, wall or the floor, causing his brain to bleed and swell.

He died in hospital two days after being taken to hospital.

Pickering wasn't Dylan's birth mother but had been caring for him in her home at Drury in south Auckland.

The trial heard that Dylan had been beaten for a long time. "He was hit, cut and maltreated over the period he was in Ms Pickering's care. In the end he was dead, in her arms, effectively," prosecutor Philip Hamlin said.

He said Pickering played internet poker while Dylan lay injured and dying because she hoped he would recover from the assault as he had on previous occasions.

But Pickering denied she was responsible for Dylan's brain damage. Her lawyer, Frank Hogan, argued on her behalf that the boy was injured when he fell from a trampoline four days before he was taken to hospital.

He raised the possibility Pickering's partner, Douglas Hoeta, gave Dylan a "backhand" that could have seen him "flying".

Hogan said to the court the Crown had tried to paint Pickering as "uncaring monster" but she had been "overwhelmed by sadness' when Dylan died