Aaliyah Morrissey

Aaliyah had a happy childhood. The daughter of Brad Raymond Morrissey and Hoana Rowena Morrissey, she loved playing with her older brother and the two were inseparable. Hoana remembers them filling the hallways with laughter as they ran around getting into mischief, having adventures and playing games. Two doors down from them in Hairini, Tauranga, lived Michael John Curran, a man Hoana was having an affair with. Curran was on bail before his trial for the manslaughter of Natasha Bridget Hayden (née Brown) on 10 January 2005 at McLaren Falls Park, a friend of his wife Donna Louise Curran whom he had also been having an affair with. Aaliyah's father Brad had moved out of the family home. On 13 September of that year, Donna Curran and Hoana Morrissey went out to do errands, leaving Curran in charge of his baby son as well as Aaliyah. Curran later called his mother Susan May Curran who would lie and say that she was with him at the time Aaliyah was injured at 34 Haukore Street. When Donna and Hoana returned home an ambulance was called for the unresponsive little girl. Donna would later admit that she had seen Curran slapping Aaliyah across the face and bottom in the days leading up to her death. Aaliyah was taken to Tauranga Hospital and then to Starship in Auckland, where she died two days later from massive head injuries. Medical experts believe they were caused by her head being slammed into a solid object. Evidence has been given that the little girl also had 33 separate bruises and abrasions to her head, neck, trunk and limbs. In addition she had serious abdominal damage, apparently from stomping or kicking; her buttocks had been beaten, there were ear injuries, torn retinas in her eyes, facial bruising and a fractured forearm. "It was prolonged, it was extremely violent, it was more than shaking - much more" said Crown prosecutor Greg Hollister-Jones. In February 2008 Curran was sentenced to 20 years six months non parole for the murder of Aaliyah. He was sentenced to nine years' jail for the manslaughter of Natasha Hayden, after being acquitted of her murder. After the verdict, it was revealed Curran had a list of more than 20 convictions, dating back to when as a 15-year-old, he was jailed for two years for indecent assault on a girl aged under 12. Curran was acquitted of raping a woman in the toilet block of Tauranga's Memorial Park in 2002.

Sources

1. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/80345881/faces-...
2. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/judging-the-judges-killer-took-a-seco...
3. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-baby-heals-aaliyahs-parents/KWTHW...
4. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/50773/Murder-accused-said-ch...
5. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/i-wont-be-there-when-he-gets-out-says...
6. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wife-backed-accused-because-he-wielde...
7. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jury-considering-verdict-in-toddler-m...