News Service from House Harris

NSW: Woman denies trying to hasten daughter's starvation

EAST MAITLAND, NSW, June 9 AAP - A woman on trial for murder has denied deliberately hastening her daughter's starvation death by feeding her foods with a laxative effect.

The woman agreed that while on a "cocktail" of prescription drugs she managed to cook, clean and shop for groceries and manage a household budget, but she did not recognise signs her daughter was gravely ill.

A post-mortem examination determined the skeletal seven-year-old died from malnutrition and dehydration.

She was found dead by her mother at the family's Hawks Nest home, north of Newcastle, on November 3, 2007.

Her parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are both on trial in the NSW Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to murdering the girl.

Under cross examination on Tuesday, Crown Prosecutor Peter Barnett put to the 35-year-old woman that it was not feasible that she had not noticed her daughter was wasting away.

"You would have touched skin and bone and nothing else," he said to her.

He said the girl would have had a "rib cage that looked like a bird cage".

"Madam, you were getting rid of a problem and you let her go," he said.

"No," the woman said.

He had earlier asked her why she was feeding the child fibre-rich food like baked beans that would have had a "laxative" effect.

"(Was it to) hasten her down the road to wastage? What do you say to that?" Mr Barnett said.

"No. That wasn't my intention," the woman replied.

The jury was also told the woman wasn't feeding her child "enough to feed a mouse".

The mother agreed that was the case "over the last couple of days" of her life.

But she said the girl's nappies had been heavy with urine and contained hard stools the day before death.

"You're making it up. You're making it up to cover for the fact you just let your child waste " Mr Barnett said.

"No," the woman replied.

"She was semi-conscious to comatose for days," Mr Barnett said.

"No," she maintained.

Mr Barnett also put to the woman that she had not intended to commit suicide when she took 50 Panamax pills after the child's death.

"Your taking of the pills was a show and nothing else," he put to her.

"No," she said.

"I took them because I didn't want to be here any more."

Earlier, she told the court her daily drug intake around the time of her daughter's death included six to 15 Valium tablets, eight to 10 Panamax tablets, two to six Voltaren Rapid tablets and eight Panadeine Forte tablets.

Asked about the effect of the drugs by her lawyer Dennis Stewart, the mother said: "(I would) feel like I was in a dream-like state, like I wasn't there."

When asked if she ever considered her child might die, she replied: "No, the thought never entered my head."

The trial before Justice Robert Allan Hulme at East Maitland continues on Thursday.