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The father of a toddler – who��died after suffering “catastrophic” stomp-type injuries��– has been accused of causing her death by a defence lawyer who claims Harlee-Rose Niven fell off a tarpaulin he had tied to the back of his motorbike, during what was dubbed a “magic carpet ride”.��

But Dylan Berry, 22, has staunchly denied the accusation from defence counsel Rebekah Webby in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday, stating, “I did not kill my daughter”.��

Harlee-Rose Niven was taken to Waikato Hospital by Berry and a neighbour on the afternoon of April 9, 2022, after he and his partner, Jessica Lee Rose Mulford, found her unresponsive and blue on her bed.��

It is Mulford, 20, who is now on trial, facing charges of injuring the 2-year-old in Tauranga with intent to injure on November 9, 2021 before later murdering her in Hamilton.��

In her opening to the jury of seven men and five women, Crown solicitor Rebecca Mann on Monday painted a picture of Mulford as a strung-out 17-year-old stepmother who had reached “breaking point” at having to take over the shared fulltime care of Harlee-Rose.��

Mann said various text messages would be produced throughout the trial saying how Mulford was “so over this f* child” to the girl’s mother, Paige Niven, and that she was now “stuck looking after [her]”.��

“It’s so stressful looking after a kid that ain’t yours”, she wrote.��

Mulford then text Niven apologising for her language stating, “It’s getting annoying when I’m doing everything and don’t get a break”.��

“It seems clear then that Miss Mulford was at breaking point,” Mann told the jury. “She had had enough.”��

“She was so over this, and I quote, ‘f*’ child.”��

Berry and Mulford took over the care for the little girl around August 2021 when she was a little over 18-months-old.��

By that stage, their relationship had become “more committed”, Mann said, and they were living together, initially with Berry’s parents in Tauranga before shifting to Mulford’s parents’ place in Pāpāmoa.��

They moved to Fairfield, Hamilton, at the end of February 2022. About five weeks later, Harlee-Rose was dead.��

‘I did not kill my daughter’��

Defence counsel Rebekah Webby has been grilling Berry since late Monday afternoon, but yesterday all of that questioning came to a head.��

Webby put to Berry that it was he who caused his daughter’s injuries after the “magic carpet ride”.��

“Negative,” Berry said, “I would never touch my daughter.”��

Webby said the defence would call a witness, a friend of Berry’s, who would testify that he had told him about him giving Harlee-Rose “magic carpet rides”.��

She alleged Harlee-Rose fell off and smashed into a fence post, but Berry repeatedly refuted the claim saying although he had given his nephew a ride like that, he hadn’t tried it with his daughter.��

“I did not kill my daughter,” he said.��

Berry said he had since had a falling out with the “friend” the defence would later call as a witness, claiming to have been told about the rides.��

Webby put to Berry that they both shared responsibilities around getting Harlee-Rose up in the morning, but he denied that saying, he’d put his daughter on the potty a few times but he kept “f* it up”, and ruining her routine, so Mulford would do it.��

“Harlee-Rose used to really like seeing you in the morning... she would gravitate to you?”��

“Oh yeah, if not me, it would be Jess.��

Jessica Lee Rose Mulford, 20, in the High Court at Hamilton this week. Photo / Belinda Feek��

“She was quite a happy, chirpy kid in the morning,” he said.��

As for the injuring incident, Webby put to Berry that Harlee-Rose was known to copy his brother’s son, as he used to climb up onto planter boxes and out through a window onto the deck of his parent’s Pongakawa home.��

Webby told Berry that his mother had put that in a statement to police.��

Berry said while he hadn’t seen his daughter do that, he had seen his nephew climb up there, however, he would always get in trouble.��

“No, because we would have had it locked 24/7. Harlee never went out there.��

“My nephew walked up there, along the planter box... but he would get in trouble for that.”��

Webby also reminded him of his earlier statement about an incident Mulford, Harlee-Rose and their dog had at Pukehina Beach which resulted in the toddler getting scratches on her chest, just a day or two before the alleged assault.��

Webby put to him that they got kicked out of his parents’ house as his mother would get angry with him for not doing enough for Harlee-Rose.��

“My mum’s always angry with me,” he replied.��

When asked if there were repeated arguments between him and his mother about who was caring for the toddler, Berry said, “not really”.��

‘I could sleep with whoever I wanted’��

Earlier, in questioning from Crown solicitor Rebecca Mann, Berry said as he and Mulford were not initially serious, and he was allowed “to do what I want as long as I told who and what I had done and what not”.��

“I had seen other girls at the same time [as Mulford],” he said.��

However, after Harlee-Rose was born, Mulford’s stance changed.��

“She decided that I was only allowed her and only her.”��

Asked how Mulford was when she first moved in, Berry said she “wasn’t the fondest... but she managed it, made it work”.��

However, soon after the resentment and derogatory comments around Harlee-Rose began about her not being Mulford’s child.��

She was upset as he had cheated “when I made her”, Berry said.��

Mulford would say things like, “it should have been her kid, supposed to be her kid, not someone else’s, even though I was allowed to do what I wanted but just had to tell her about it”.��

After the November incident they had to have a supervisor 24/7 when looking after Harlee-Rose, and Mulford would call him names, including, “cheating piece of s***” and “slutbag”.��

The trial, being overseen by Justice Neil Campbell, is set down for two weeks.��

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at ��һ�ǿ����� for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.��