Father found guilty of beating 2-year-old daughter to death in "meth rage"

A father who beat his two-year-old daughter to death in March 2019 has been found guilty of murder by a jury in New Zealand last Thursday. According to forensic pathologists, Aaron George Izett, 38, struck his baby girl 70 to 80 times all over her head and body with "weapons" in a fit of "meth rage." The toddler suffered multiple abrasions and bruises as well as a torn ligament in her neck. He later dumped her body in an estuary at Little Waihi where she eventually drowned.

The jury, which consisted of seven men and five women, delivered a unanimous verdict after about 10 hours of deliberations at the culmination of a 12-day trial at the High Court in Rotorua.

Crown Prosecutor Anna Pollett said the man subjected his daughter to "assault on assault" before she was left to die naked and face-down between two large rocks that were placed on top of the child. The pathologist assigned to the case also gave evidence that the child may have survived had she not been left in the water.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Izett did not deny causing his daughter's death and accepted responsibility. His legal team argued to the High Court that he should be found not guilty of his actions by reason of insanity.

His defence lawyer said Izett was suffering from a disease of the mind as he claimed to hear voices and experienced hallucinations and grand delusions that made him believe he was a prophet.

"When you look at all the evidence there is absolutely no evidence that Mr Izett intended to kill his daughter, but whatever was going on in his mind it was not logical," Defence lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade QC said.

However, the Crown found no evidence of Izett suffering from such mental delusions at the time of the murder nor evidence to support his plea for insanity.

Izett, who is known to be a chronic methamphetamine user, has been alleged by the Crown to have killed his daughter in a "meth rage."

He was also found guilty of biting the officer who arrested him, but he was found not guilty of intent to cause grievous bodily harm to another man. Izett will be sentenced in the High Court at Tauranga on February 3.