Former Bay of Plenty woman Cindy Taylor has been found guilty of the manslaughter of her elderly mother Ena Lai Dung.

After five hours of deliberations the jury returned at 5pm yesterday, after asking a question an hour before.

Cindy Taylor, pictured in the dock at the Auckland High Court.Peter Meecham/FAIRFAX NZ.

They requested to see a video recording of Cindy Taylor's flatmate Brian Taylor being interviewed by police.

Luana Taylor in the dock at the Auckland High Court. She has been found guilty of failing to protect a vulnerable adult.

He and his wife, Luana Taylor, were found guilty of failing to protect a vulnerable adult, while Dung's daughter Cindy Taylor was found guilty of her manslaughter and using her bank card dishonestly.

The verdicts were unanimous.

Brian Taylor pictured in the dock at the Auckland High Court.

The Crown claimed Taylor formerly from Whakatane and her flatmates Brian and Luana Taylor turned a "blind eye" to the needs of the 76-year-old living with them. She was found dead, emaciated and lying in her own waste.

The emotional trial heard repeated denials from Taylor that she had purposely neglected her mother, saying Dung had refused to eat, drink or toilet herself.

But the Crown says Taylor had failed in her duty to provide care for her mother, citing a number of failures on Taylor's part to get help for her mother when she urgently needed it.

Jurors on the three-week trial were initially warned that the evidence would be difficult to look at and hear Stuff reported.

THE CROWN'S CASE

Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker says the case amounted to "the gross neglect of an elderly and very vulnerable woman".

"The three defendants all allowed her to die in what was undoubtedly a miserable death in that house," she says.

Dung's frail body was found covered in flies, maggots, urine and faeces after Luana Taylor called 111 to say she "had a feeling" Dung had died.

While the three were on the phone to the operator they refused to perform CPR despite the desperate attempts by the call taker to get them to take action.

Paramedics, police officers and a mortuary worker who attended the Manurewa address all commented on the strong smell of ammonia and excrement in the house, comparing the smell to rotting meat, or a dead animal.

Forensic pathologist Fintan Garavan became so concerned at the state of Dung's body that he called senior police officers to investigate.

He discovered Dung had died from dehydration and malnutrition, and weighed just 29kg.

Her body was covered in chemical burns from her urine, and bedsores from not being turned, and she had 14 broken ribs and a broken sternum which were old injuries that had begun to heal themselves.

Her body smelled of gangrene, parts of her skin had been "nibbled" by bugs, and when paramedics peeled away her shirt for treatment her skin had pulled away with it, the court heard.

The mortuary later tried to get Cindy Taylor to collect her mother's body but she failed to do so for 10 days.

Police officers combing the Moncrieff Ave property later discovered rubbish bags full of the elderly woman's belongings scattered around the property.

In total the Crown raised nine points on which it alleged Cindy Taylor failed to act.

That included failing to take her mother to the hospital, not calling 111, failing to organise in-home care, not taking time off work to care for her mother in the evenings, not putting her into a nursing home, not buying her adult diapers when she began soiling herself, not getting her a hospital bed or putting sheets on her bed and not organising someone to look after Dung when Taylor was at work.

A neighbour testified that he had seen Taylor pulling her mother up by her hair and swearing at her, while Luana Taylor had told police officers that she had heard Taylor slapping the older woman.

The Crown also claimed that Taylor had dishonestly used the bank cards of her late uncle and mother. Bank records showed Cindy Taylor routinely withdrew as much as possible from the accounts, and had taken more than $37,000 in total.

THE DEFENCE

Cindy Taylor claimed her mother had a history of weight loss and bulimia and said in the 10 days leading up to her death she had refused to eat or drink.

The women had a tumultuous relationship and didn't get along well however in 2013, Taylor moved in with her mother to help care for her. Dung was living with Brian and Luana Taylor and her brother, who had also lived there, who then died.

Cindy Taylor claimed Dung had hit both her and Luana Taylor, who is in a wheelchair, and had 'play acted' by falling over and pretending not to hear her.

Taylor says she tried to handfeed her mother but was repeatedly frustrated by Dung. She also claimed she went through lots of household products trying to scrub clean the bedroom which was repeatedly soiled by Dung who allegedly refused to use the toilet.

Taylor worked nights at Wilson's carpark, sometimes working up to 12 hours per shift, and then came home during the day to clean and look after her mother which her lawyer Peter Kaye described as "a living hell."

She says her mother didn't like to use ATMs and so had asked her daughter to draw up a contract to allow Cindy Taylor to make withdrawals on her mother's behalf. Her mother also claimed authority over Cindy Taylor's late uncle's bank account and was allegedly given authority to withdraw his funds too.

"Even though my mother and I, our relationship wasn't close at the best of times, I did try to make a reconciliation with her when I moved in," Cindy Taylor testified.

"I love my mum, there's no way I would have [done] something to cause her death. I was working hard and I was just doing the best I can or what could at the time."

The maximum penalty for manslaughter is life imprisonment, while a charge of failing to protect a vulnerable adult could see Brian and Luana Taylor jailed for up to 10 years.

- Stuff