Photo: Composite photo / NZMEA teenage stepmum who inflicted such severe fatal abdominal injuries on a toddler that it split the girl's pancreas, has won a bid to have the Supreme Court reassess her jail sentence. She was also found guilty of injuring with intent to injure after strangling Harlee-Rose five months before she died in April 2022. The Court of Appeal judges said that while another judge may have given slightly more discount for her young age and mental health at the time, they would not. Dutch then turned to the Supreme Court, and in a decision released today, it granted Mulford leave to appeal her sentence on the grounds of "whether the Court of Appeal was correct to dismiss the appeal". The senior court also found that Justice Campbell was cognisant of the limitations of Mulford's mental health report, and ruled that her sentence was not manifestly excessive and dismissed the appeal.

Source: Otago Daily Times December 22, 2025 05:04 UTC