Nikita Bernice Hart

In a pall of sunlight on the table lay the last picture of a laughing, elfin-faced little girl with bright brown hair. A "joyous, skipping, dancing" little girl who died two years ago aged five. She was murdered on September 4, 1994, at her home in Levin. On Thursday at the High Court in Palmerston North after an eight-day trial, her stepfather Anthony John Harbottle, 46, was found guilty of killing Nikita Hart, the little girl with the "cheeky smile". Tracey Hart, 28, is still reeling from the ultimate betrayal. She loved Tony Harbottle, married him then paid with her daughter's life. She recalls two years ago when she thought all was right with her world; a husband she was proud of, a daughter she cherished, a home she was happy in and she was pregnant. Tracey's face shows the pain like clouds scudding across a gentle sky. Two years ago she says she was saving to buy Nikita a Barbie doll in a sparkly pink dress. "Now I'm saving for her headstone." It will read; "In Loving memory of Nikita my daughter". Nikita died from fatal internal injuries caused by a blow to the stomach. She loved pink. Pink dresses, pink ribbons, pink socks. She could read and write before she went to school on her pink bike wearing her pink safety helmet."She loved to sing and dance. She was always so happy. She was such a happy good girl." The night before Nikita died she had gone to bed a little subdued then woken through the night, vomiting with a "sore tummy". "We showered her, settled her and put her back to bed." Around 8am Nikita crawled into bed beside her mum and said her stomach wasn't better. "Tony decided to go and get a friend who knew about childhood illnesses just to see what we should do." The friend said Nikita probably had a stomach bug and advised Tracey to let Tony deal with Nikita because it might not be a good idea for her to get too close as she was just three months pregnant. "It wasn't like Nikita to be sick. She was always full of the joy of living." Even after medicine from the local pharmacy, the longed-for improvement and return of roses to Nikita's cheeks didn't happen. Tracey's soft voice is unexpectedly silent. She sucks her lip and slides her finger along the table top. "My friend said Nikita was asleep. Her eyes were half shut. Tony went to check ... he came out a few minutes later. Nikita was in his arms. He gave her to me." Tracey said as she looked down at her "sleeping" baby she heard Tony's voice was saying, "She's not breathing, I tried CPR, she's stopped breathing ..." In the car on the way to the hospital Nikita's eyes were closed: "There was no sound." "I tried and tried in the car to give her CPR. At the hospital they said she was dead." Six days later the little five-year-old with the heart-warming grin was lowered in a small coffin into a grave at the Avenue Cemetery north of Levin. "I saw Nikita smiling. Then I saw her holding the ropes they used to lower the coffin . . . she wasn't ready to die." Tracey said she still can't believe Tony packed all Nikita's clothes and toys into a plastic rubbish bag and threw them into the grave with her. "I only have her favourite sweatshirt. It's pink." Two weeks later Anthony John Harbottle was arrested and charged with the murder of Nikita Hart. Nikita's smile, her feet twinkling in her favourite black patent leather shoes and her favourite television character Barney the dinosaur's theme song. "I love you, you love me, we're as happy as can be," came to mind. "She was such a dear little girl." Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/81568462/faces-...