Samantha Mere Kura Christine Thompson

Samantha Mere Kura Christine Thompson was two months old when she died in Wellington Hospital on April 3, 1993. She was living with her parents in a flat at 3 Houghton Crescent, Blenheim. Her mother "moved away" and her father, Kelly James Douglas Thompson, aged 19 and a beneficiary, had sole care. The Crown alleged Thompson shook his daughter when she would not stop crying on March 29. A Plunket nurse visited that day and Thompson explained Samantha's twitching by claiming she had fallen off a couch. Samantha was taken to a doctor who saw no bruises and allowed the pair to go home, according to an NZPA report about the criminal trial. Later that night, the father took Samantha to Wairau Hospital, Blenheim. She was flown to Wellington Hospital the next day. While in Wellington Hospital, a medical mishap occurred. A doctor found oxygen tubes from an incubator did not fit a scanner, so the doctor "put together what he thought was an appropriate arrangement", NZPA reported. It was not, Samantha "over inflated" and her heart stopped. She was revived but died four days later. A jury accepted prosecutor Ken Stone's argument that if not for Samantha's abuse by her father, she would not have been in hospital at all. A pathologist testified the "continuing and substantial cause of death was the baby's head injuries". Coroner Peter Joseph Radich​ found Samantha's cause of death was the injuries caused by her father and did not mention the medical mishap. Kelly Thompson was convicted of manslaughter because there was no evidence he intended to kill Samantha. Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/79856150/faces-...