Crown closes in caregiver trial

Two caregivers regularly assaulted an intellectually impaired woman in their house and left her without medical help until she died days later, a court was told today.

The body of Patricia Joseph (37) was found floating in the Wairoa River, near Clevedon, south of Auckland, by two kayakers on January 20, 2008.

Joseph Proude (47) and Here Teinakirai (53), both Auckland beneficiaries, are on trial in the High Court at Auckland over Ms Joseph's death. They have pleaded not guilty to one charge each of manslaughter by causing death by assault.

However, they entered differing pleas to two other charges, including a second count of manslaughter by omitting to provide Ms Joseph with the necessary medical care between January 1 and 20, 2008.

Proude pleaded guilty to that and also to offering an indignity to Ms Joseph's body, which was wrapped in pieces of cloth and weighed down with a rock.

Teinakirai denied both those charges.

Proude and Teinakirai also pleaded not guilty to various assault charges dating back to October 2006, when the two became Ms Joseph's caregivers.

Closing the Crown case today, prosecutor Christine Gordon said the jury might ask how there could be two manslaughter charges when there is only one dead body.

"The focus is not on the body itself, but on the cause of death," she told the jury.

"The Crown says there was an unlawful act - an assault - which contributed to Ms Joseph's death. Then there was an omission to get medical care which contributed to her death," Ms Gordon said.

Ms Gordon told the jury the pathologist who gave evidence during the trial was unable to give an opinion on the cause of death.

"The assault contributed to the cause of death. You have all the trial evidence available to you to reach your decision on this point," Ms Gordon told the jury.

"If this had been an accident, why didn't they mention something to family members, and lie about her whereabouts?" She added that these lies had been told by Teinakirai.

Proude had repainted part of the house and replaced the lino in the bathroom where Ms Joseph had laid sick before she died.

"Selected areas were repainted - Ms Joseph's bedroom, the bathroom and parts of the hallway - which were all associated with Ms Joseph. They got rid of anything connected to Ms Joseph," Ms Gordon said.

Earlier in the trial, the court was told that family members, who were denied access to Ms Joseph, and neighbours reported seeing and hearing incidents of physical and verbal abuse.

Ms Gordon said both accused knew that the other regularly assaulted Ms Joseph and did nothing about it. She said that, about January 1, 2008, Ms Joseph, who suffered from incontinence, was again assaulted after she soiled or wet herself on the floor of their house.

She received injuries, the extent of which were unknown, but which left her unable to walk or move from where she lay in the bathroom.

Teinakirai later told police that, when the pair returned from a shopping trip, she went to the bathroom to check on Ms Joseph and found she had died.

Ms Gordon said a plan was then made to dispose of the body. She said the pair waited until after dark before putting the body in their car and driving to the Wairoa River on January 13, 2008.

While Teinakirai stayed in the car, Proude found an 10kg rock and then carried the body and the rock to the water. The top of the torso was covered with blankets used for the family dogs while the lower half was bare except for an incontinence nappy.

When emergency services recovered the body, it had decomposed to the extent that it was not possible to determine race or facial features, or to specify the extent of injuries caused, Ms Gordon said.

For several days, police had no real leads until an officer found a plastic bag at the scene. In it was a social services card with Teinakirai's name. The trial started on February 8 and is in its fourth week. Defence is due to begin closing on Monday.