After arguing only the parents could have been responsible for fatally injuring a tiny baby, police were pleased when a High Court jury agreed with them today.
The Auckland jury found Azees Mahomed guilty of murdering his 11-week-old daughter Tahani, and of two counts of causing her grievous bodily harm.
He and his wife Tabbasum, 26, were also found guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life by the jury, which had retired yesterday to consider its verdicts.
The Mahomeds were remanded in custody until sentencing on December 15.
Their daughter was admitted to hospital with serious injuries on December 28, 2007. She died four days later.
Justice Rhys Harrison told the jury it had been "a particularly difficult and traumatic trial", and the circumstances of the case were extraordinary and tragic.
The jury forewoman broke down in tears after delivering the verdicts.
Speaking to NZPA outside court, Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Lynch of Manukau police said he was pleased with the outcome.
"It was clear very early on in the investigation that these were non-accidental injuries and there were only two people who could have inflicted them.
"I'd like to pay tribute to the investigation team and the Crown prosecution team for getting this result today."
Police bugged the Mahomed's home after the incident, and the intercepted taped conversations were played to the jury during the trial.
These tapes were very useful to police during the investigation, Mr Lynch said.
In the taped conversations, the South Africa-born couple could be heard praying to Allah and talking about how the infant could have been fatally injured .
The tapes were translated into English for the police by Detective Kush Kullar, who was challenged on aspects of it by Azees Mahomed's lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith.
The lawyer challenged his ability to interpret Hindi to English when he had no formal qualifications in Hindi and was not a recognised interpreter.
Mr Lynch said after the trial he did not agree with Mr Wilkinson-Smith about the translations not being entirely accurate.
"A qualified interpreter who has been interpreting for government departments of New Zealand for 10 years pre-reviewed everything the police officer wrote.
"Other than minor points which didn't change the overall meaning of any sentence, there were no real material errors.
"We went through a very thorough process with those transcripts," Mr Lynch said.
During his summing up, Mr Wilkinson-Smith said Tabbasum Mahomed was more likely to be responsible for Tahani's death than her husband, as she spent a lot more time with her baby.
She had admitted to a doctor that she "gave her baby a fright", which was the reason the baby's head was swelling.
The Crown case was that Azees Mahomed was responsible for the death.
Tabbasum Mahomed was complicit in helping cover this up, Crown prosecutor Phil Hamlin said during the trial.
He told the jury the child had suffered previous injuries, including a broken leg and a brain haemorrhage and she was also found to be malnourished.
