Mother Peta-Ann Francis lied to police because she was ‘still in shock’, court hears
THE mother of a toddler whose body was found in a roof giggled and lied during a triple-0 call when reporting her daughter missing.
THE mother of toddler Nikki Francis-Coslovich, whose body was found in the roof of her Mildura home, has told a court there are lies in her statements to police because she was “still in shock” when she spoke to officers.
Peta-Ann Francis admitted there were lies in the statements, during intense cross-examination on Tuesday at the murder trial of her ex-boyfriend John Clifford Torney, 32, who denies bashing Nikki to death on August 25 last year.
On Wednesday, Ms Francis said she couldn’t remember the exact details of events of the day because she was in shock.
“Some things were clear and some things weren’t, and I was still trying to figure it out,” she said.
The mother giggled and repeatedly lied to the triple-0 operator when she reported her daughter missing, a Victorian court has heard.
The toddler’s body was discovered in the roof cavity of the family’s Mildura home after Ms Francis reported her missing around 3.30pm on August 25 last year.
Crown prosecutors allege Torney bashed the 15kg toddler to death but the defence says Ms Francis killed her own daughter.
The pathologist who conducted the autopsy previously gave evidence that the injuries Nikki sustained were akin to those seen in high-speed car crashes.
Ms Francis told Torney’s trial in Mildura on Tuesday she saw Nikki twice the day she died, once when she was playing in the sandpit and later after Torney had put her down for a nap, when she just saw her hair.
In her call to the triple-0 operator, which was played to the court, she says she last saw Nikki about 11am when she put her down for a nap.
Asked by defence barrister Julie Condon if that was a lie, she said, “yes”.
She admitted she told four lies to the triple-0 operator and that she giggled during the call.
She also admitted telling a series of lies to the police officers who took her statements.
Ms Francis cried several times under intense cross-examination on the seventh day of the trial.
The court had previously heard Sergeant Kaare Anderson, who responded to the missing person report, thought it was “very odd” that Ms Francis was smiling and appeared happy when telling police her daughter was missing.
Ms Francis told the trial “having the cops at my house makes me nervous”.
“It’s a nervous smirk that I have,” Ms Francis said.
She denied Ms Condon’s assertion that she referred to her daughter as “the little cow”.
Ms Francis had told the court earlier she sometimes psychically disciplined her children but never laid a hand on her two-year-old daughter.
“Not hard, it was just a tap. I’ve never hurt my children,” Ms Francis said.
The mother denied throwing her daughter against the edge of her bed and repeatedly smacking her, then asking her boyfriend to help hide the body.
Ms Francis had been dating Torney for about five months when the body of her daughter Nikki was discovered with fatal blunt force trauma injuries in the roof of the family home.
Ms Francis told homicide detectives she couldn’t understand how her boyfriend, who treated her “like an angel”, could bash her two-year-old to death, the court heard.
Defence barrister Julie Condon on Wednesday put to Ms Francis that she yelled at the two-year-old, threw her on to her bed, smacked her, then said to Torney she had “gone to far with Nikki” and she didn’t think she was breathing. Ms Francis denied it all.
Ms Condon put to Ms Francis that she went into Nikki’s room where she hit her child, then said to Torney, “I think I’ve gone to far. Can you help me? I need help.” “No,” Ms Francis said from the witness box.
Ms Condon further said Ms Francis told Torney they “need to get rid of the body” and asked him to do it.
“No,” Ms Francis replied.
“It was your idea and you asked him to do it for you,” Ms Condon said. “No,” Ms Francis said again.
“You lost control with your little daughter, didn’t you.” “No.”
The Victorian Supreme Court jury heard Ms Francis told police she didn’t understand how “JT” could treat her so well then bash her daughter, when they interviewed her on September 2.
Ms Condon put it to her that when detectives asked her if Torney had hurt Nikki, she said she “had no answer”.
“I didn’t know,” Ms Francis said on Wednesday.
The trial continues before Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth.