A woman fatally injured a 16-year-old boy when she hit him around the head with a baseball bat, a court has heard.

Kiahna Trott-Edwards is alleged to have attacked Shijuan Mungal on September 8, last year, in the communal area of an apartment complex on Ord Road in Warwick.

The teenager suffered a fractured skull as a result of the second of two blows that caused bleeding on the brain from which he later died.

Opening the case for the prosecution yesterday, Rory Field, Director of Public Prosecutions, told jurors at the Supreme Court that both Ms Trott-Edwards and Mr Mungal had been travelling on a bus prior to the fatal attack. He said: “It was the beginning of the school year, it was the first day of school.

“Shijuan had just experienced his first day at a new school and went from school to Hamilton. There he met a friend Ja-Ja DeSilva — it was Ja-Ja’s birthday and he was going to see his father to pick up his birthday money.

“The victim was best friends with Ja-Ja so he went with him to where Ja-Ja’s father lived, which was just off Ord Road. The defendant happened to live in an apartment in the same complex.”

Mr Field described how an argument broke out on the bus and Ms Trott-Edwards had asked Mr Mungal to stop cursing.

He said: “There were several youngsters sitting in the back of the bus. It seems there was some joking about a name ‘Shiloh’. The victim thought they were joking about his father because he had a name quite like that, so he started arguing.

“There was young people arguing and making noise and some cursing going on.

“The defendant, who at the time was sitting a few rows farther forward, decided to intervene and told the victim to stop cursing. This argument between the defendant and the victim did not last long.”

The court heard that Ms Trott-Edwards got off the bus at the stop before her home, while Mr DeSilva and Mr Mungal got off at the stop after the apartment complex.

Mr Field told jurors that Mr Mungal waited in the communal area of the complex, while Mr DeSilva went up to his father’s home to pick up his birthday money.

He added: “The defendant saw him [Mr Mungal] and she confronted him. She told him to go and leave.

“She had picked up a wooden bat that looked like some sort of baseball bat.

“It was a 2ft 1in wooden bat and she proceeded to hit him twice with the bat. The first blow was to the arm and the second to his head. It was hard enough to fracture his skull and caused an intracranial haemorrhage, which three days later led to his death.

“He did not die that evening although he fell down at least once. He left the yard with his friend Ja-Ja — unsteady on his feet and dazed — and caught the bus back to town.”

Mr Mungal’s mother picked him up from Hamilton Bus Station and took him to hospital when she noticed blood coming out of his ear.

The court heard that Mr Mungal was “upset and noisy” when he arrived at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital — behaviour typical of the kind of head injury he had suffered.

Mr Field said: “Unfortunately, despite medical attention, the fracture to the temporal bone had caused intracranial bleeding on the brain and he was certified dead at 12.29 on September 11.”

He added: “The fact that she hit him twice with the wooden bat, and once to the head fracturing a strong bone in the head, clearly points to the defendant having the intent to cause really serious harm.”

Ms Trott Edwards, 32, denies murder.

The trial continues.

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