Gamer jailed for critically injuring baby.

Devon Ashley Bird

Waipukurau man Devon Ashley Bird, 21, appeared in Napier District Court this morning for sentencing after pleading guilty to ill-treating a child and causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard last month.

Full article here.

Four children left home alone, no food or heating.

Four children – all under 7 – left home alone on Saturday night were found scared and crying when police went into a Whangarei house.

A 24-year-old Raumanga woman faces four charges of neglecting a child under the age of 18 and will appear in Whangarei District Court today.

Full article here.

HereHere document – A here document (also called a here-document, a heredoc, a hereis, a here-string or a here-script) is a way of specifying a string literal in command line shells in… →

7-year-old girl a victim of progressivism and political correctness.

From the Stuff website:

The parents of a seven-year-old girl are backing a decision for her to live as a boy and to medically stop puberty.

In as little as two years the child, whom the Sunday Star-Times has chosen not to identify, could start a course of drugs dubbed puberty blockers.

This is the first step toward hormone replacement treatment and possible surgery.

It would mean the child, whose story is being told today  with the support of his family, will never fully develop a woman’s body and its natural functions.

However, if the injections, which are given once every three months, are stopped, the body would continue its normal development.

“If he reaches 11, 12 or 13 and decides it’s not what he wants, then he stops blockers and he’ll go through puberty as a woman,” said the child’s mother.

Comment:

This story is heartbreaking and tragic. In progressive P.C. la la land, a child’s every (progressive aligned) whim must be encouraged and indulged, even if harmful to the child.

The parents in this article have failed competely in their duty to guide their child’s gradual development into a happy, well adjusted, functioning, contributing member of society. Instead, the child will likely grow up totally self absorbed, unhappy, and confused.

Statistically there is a high incidence of substance abuse, mental health issues, prostitution, and self harm/suicide among people who have undergone sex change treatments.

All of this could easily be avoided with some sensible, firm, and positive parenting.

Willful ignorance means mother walks free in manslaughter of baby.

Cherie Denese Nagle, 48, pled guilty to manslaughter after her 11-day-old baby boy (Reef Rippa Stone) died of extreme dehydration and severe meningitis.

Nagle walked free after Justice Joe Williams ruled that the baby’s death was not due to a lack of care or love but a lack of understanding of the baby’s gradually worsening condition.

My guess is the mother follows some kind of alternative religious or homeopathic lifestyle and shuns modern medicine, given that the baby and her other children were all born at home with no medical assistance.

In New Zealand where medical care is free for children, no baby should ever die due to a lack of medical care. The mother and her willful ignorance are 100% to blame for this needless death.

Full article here.

Teaching Creationism is Child Abuse.

Yeah I know it’s not quite in the same league as bashing a baby to death but it’s still child abuse.

Another unsupervised child dies.

David Taliai

Update: The boy’s name is David Taliai.

A three-year-old boy has died after being run over in a shopping centre car park while his mother was inside shopping.

Toddler killed by van at shops.

A mother cradled her dying toddler after he was hit and dragged by a van in Auckland yesterday.

The 3-year-old boy in Manurewa died from serious head and chest injuries as his devastated mother cried, “Please don’t take him” and “Cuddle me, my son”. He had been playing outside shops on Dalgety Drive, while his mother was inside, when the eight-seater van hit him about 1.45pm.

He was dragged under the van for about 5m before the driver stopped, alerted by shouts from workers at the Kev’s Clothing Emporium store. One of them, James Maea, 22, said the accident happened “out of nowhere”.

“I heard a colleague call, ‘Stop’, but the van didn’t stop at all and hit the kid. I think the driver didn’t really know what he had hit. He kept driving until my boss told him to stop.”

His colleague, Charlie Selui, went to the side of the van where the boy was lying, picked him up and put him on a couch that was on the side of the driveway. Mr Maea said by that stage the boy was bleeding badly. “He had been here with his mum. She’s a regular customer and she was inside looking at clothes and her child was running around [outside].”

The driver was distraught. “You could tell by the look on his face that he was sorry.” The boy’s mother knelt in front of her son while another woman performed CPR. The driver wiped blood from the face of the child, telling the mother, “Sorry, sorry”.

Constable Amy Weston, of the Counties- Manukau serious crash unit, said it was too early to say if the driver would be charged but urged witnesses to come forward.

Tragic lack of parental supervision leads to boy’s death.

The article below details the drowning of 4-year-old Michael Te Kapurangi Walker-Mitchell, who had complete freedom to roam the streets of the East Coast settlement of Te Karaka where he lived, as long as he “watched out for dogs, kept off the road and was home by dark”.

Let me just repeat that he was FOUR YEARS OLD! The cause of his death has been attributed to an inadequately fenced water tank. Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that he would probably be alive today if only his parents had an ounce of common sense and kept an eye on him.

IMO the parents should be charged with neglect causing death. But no, in some sections of today’s society the government is expected to be responsible for raising the children produced by parents who are merely the birth vessel and sperm doner, unwilling or unable to perform this vital duty.

Daredevil boy’s tragic drowning.

Michael Walker-Mitchell was allowed to roam the streets of the East Coast settlement of Te Karaka, as long as he watched out for dogs, kept off the road and was home by dark.

Good rules, but “daredevil” Michael was just four and didn’t stick to one of them – to stay out of a property 108m from his home because there was a disused water tank there.

Four days after his fourth birthday he wandered on to the property, into the 1.8m deep tank and drowned. Hastings Coroner Chris Devonport, in a report released today, found Michael died of drowning last June 4.

His family raised the alarm when he failed to return by 5pm, having last been seen at 3.30pm. Others in the village were called, and police were notified at 7pm. Michael’s body was found just after midnight, submerged in the water tank.

His father, Michael Mitchell, told the coroner the preschooler knew not to go into the property. “I told him not to go in there. My aunty stays across the road and she always tells the kids to keep out of there.

“The gate’s always down and horses run in there all the time. As far as I can remember, that tank was uncovered. That’s why everybody was told to stay out of there.”

Michael usually played with his trucks in a drain outside the family home or went to his cousins with his five-year-old sister, Mr Mitchell said. “Everybody knew him in the village, most were related to him,” he said.

“There’s a kind of attitude that you look after each other’s kids. Michael was always told not to take off by himself but he would. “We had rules, like watch out for dogs and never walk on the road and be home before dark.”

Mr Mitchell described his son as “a bit of a daredevil”, always climbing on cars or running around. Mr Devonport said the property the water tank was on had a gate but there was a gap in it which an adult could walk through.

The tank was 1.8m deep, 5.3m long and 2.8m wide and set into the ground but was not classed as a swimming pool and therefore not required to be fenced. However, it was clearly a hazard to small children – “and that fact appears to have been known”, Mr Devonport said.

“However, the tank was not adequately fenced off or covered to eliminate the hazard. The only action taken to reduce the danger to small children appears to have been to instruct them to not enter the property.

“Tragically, in Michael’s case, that was insufficient.”

Common sense reigns (mostly), ridiculous kids’ names rejected.

NZ’s Internal Affairs Department has rejected a bunch of totally ridiculous names that some stupid parents wanted to call their children, but has allowed others even though they were also ridiculous.

Rejected names: “Mafia No Fear”, “Anal”, “V8”, single letters, the Roman numerals “I”, “II”, “III”, punctuation symbols * . and /. Titles such as President, Emperor, Chief, Constable, Sargent and General were also rejected.

I remember a couple of years ago some brainless couple tried to name their son “4real”. Some others from the past are “Yeah Detroit”, “Stallion”, “Twisty Poi”, “Keenan Got Lucy” and “Sex Fruit”.

Allowed names: “Violence”, “Midnight Chardonnay” and “Number 16 Bus Shelter”. In 2008, Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt ordered a girl named “Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii” be taken into court custody so she could change her name.

Others allowed in the the past are “Benson and Hedges” (a brand of cigarettes), and twins named “Fish” and “Chips”.

Ridiculous and regal kids’ names rejected.

Parents who tried to name their child Mafia No Fear are among hundreds who had their choice of name rejected in the past decade. Justice was the most popular disallowed name, with royal titles, religious references and punctuation marks among names parents tried to bestow upon children.

A child and family psychologist who has even seen children named after illicit drugs says parents need to be more careful about stigmatising their kids. A list provided by the Internal Affairs Department shows 350 parents had the names they chose for their offspring rejected in the 10 years ending June 30, 2011.

The list of disallowed names follows the release of the most popular names for 2011 – Liam and Ruby – this week. The most popular rejected name was Justice – 49 people tried to name their child that, along with alternate spellings Justus and Juztice.

Royal titles featured heavily – King, Prince, Princess, Knight, Queen, Queen V, Queen Victoria, Lord, Lady, Baron and Duke were all rejected as were Royal, Royale, Majesty and Majesti. Religious references Messiah, Christ, Bishop, Saint and Lucifer didn’t make the cut either.

Mafia No Fear, Anal, V8, single letters, the Roman numerals I, II, III, punctuation symbols * . and / and titles such as President, Emperor, Chief, Constable, Sargent and General were also rejected.

Internal Affairs Department deputy registrar-general Ross McPherson said no names were banned, but they did have to fall within the bounds of the law. “In general terms, people can register whatever names they like for their children. However, some rules do apply.” Names could not be more than 100 characters, use an unearned title, or be offensive to the general public, he said.

“A name can be rejected if it might cause offense to a reasonable person, or if it is, includes or resembles an official rank or title, or if it is unreasonably long. So, one couldn’t, for example, register a swear word as a name for their child or couldn’t, without adequate justification, register a name of Justice, Colonel or Royal.”

Names also had to be actual words, not numbers or symbols. Last year it was reported that the name Nevaeh – heaven backwards – had been questioned but ultimately allowed. Now it is the 38th most popular girls’ name.

In 2008, Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt publicly criticised some parents’ choice of names, after he ordered that a girl named Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii be taken into court custody so she could change her name.

Her name had not been registered in New Zealand, but other names such as Violence, Chardonnay and Number 16 Bus Shelter had been. Mr McPherson said while the law did set parameters, names that might be considered embarrassing or unusual by some were allowed.

Child and family psychologist David Stebbings said he had worked with many children with unusual names, including some whose names were based on illicit drugs. Parents risked stigmatising their children by choosing unusual names because children want to be normal, he said.

Hefty titles like Princess or King could have a negative effect, and parents had to think about the name long term, not just as a baby. “In reality, do you really want your child to be a princess – what does that translate to in real life?”

Names should be about the child, not the parents, he said. “You want to name your child in a way that represents who they are, not who you want them to be.”

Eight-year-old boy says “Jail my parents”.

An eight-year-old boy who along with his older sister, were subjected to a year of horrific abuse from his parents, says he never wants to see them again.

Abused boy wants parents jailed.

An eight-year-old boy “can’t think of any good things” about his mother and never wants to see her again, after she subjected him to a year of horrific abuse, a court heard today.

The west Auckland woman is being sentenced today in the Auckland District Court on 25 charges of abusing her daughter and son, then aged nine and seven. This morning the Crown made submissions that the woman, who has name suppression, should be sentenced to eight to nine years jail for the abuse.

The boy’s harrowing victim impact statement was read to the court by Crown lawyer Lorraine MacDonald. In it he described how he still fears his parents.

“There is nothing nice about my mum. I can’t think of any good things. I can think of lots of bad things. She would tell me that someone was going to take me away.”

The boy said he could think of just one good thing about his father – he once let him play his video game. The father is facing two charges in the case but will be sentenced next year.

The boy said he and his sister once sat outside at night talking about how they could get hit less by their parents. He said his sister told him they got hit because they didn’t listen, so they tried to listen more. But they still got hit.

The boy described his pain at being abused. “I don’t know why I was hit so much but I think it was because I wasn’t good enough.” He said he thinks his parents should stay in jail for a long time.

“I was hurt for a long time so I think they should stay where they are for a long time too.” Parts of the girl’s statement were also read to the court. She speaks of how normally parents will give kids a chance if they behave badly.

“But they didn’t give me a chance. They didn’t give my brother a chance either.” She said she is still terrified by what happened to her. “I still have nightmares about what happened to me. In my dreams my mother and father are out of jail and trying to find me to hurt me some more.”

Wikipedia: parent definition: one that begets or brings forth offspring. →

Child killer gives birth in jail.

Child killer and prolific breeder Maine Annabella Ngati.

The woman who killed her son 3-year-old Ngatikaura Ngati in 2007, and was convicted of his manslaughter, has given birth again while in prison.

Mother who killed child gives birth in jail.

Maine Annabella Ngati and her partner Teusila Fa’asisila were each sentenced to eight years and six months’ for the manslaughter of Ngati’s 3-year-old son Ngatikaura Ngati in 2007. They were ordered to serve a minimum of four years and eight months.

Ngati appeared before the Parole Board on November 7 and was denied release. However, the board’s decision revealed she had given birth in prison.

Ngatikaura Ngati, dead at the hands of his mother and partner.

“She has a lot of children and we believe she has even given birth to another child while on this prison sentence. That child has been fostered or adopted into the community,” the report said.

A jury in the High Court at Auckland heard how Ngati would punch her son in the face, strike him with a stick and whack him around the head. Ngatikaura had transformed from a happy and confident boy to a terrified child who would mess his pants then try to throw the evidence out of the window to avoid beatings.

He was hit with weapons including a bat, and his blood was found throughout the house, including on the ceiling. Ngati would be entitled to reapply for parole in 12 months and Fa’asisila would go before the board this month.

Corrections psychological services director Nikki Reynolds said the department would consider a request for Ngati to have counselling.

Neglected 5-year-old sent to school smelly, hungry and riddled with head lice and scabies.

Sian Corbett-Pitman

Contender for mother-of-the-year Sian Corbett-Pitman has been convicted of neglecting her 5-year-old daughter.

A couple of pearls of wisdom from her Bookface page: “life is to short, so live it up, drink it down, party hard, smoke alot, break the rules, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh loudly, have fun, make memories, and never forget or regret anything that once made you smile :)”

and

“I Like to Take Long Romantic Walks to the Liquor Store”.

Mother admits neglecting daughter, 5

A mum who sent her 5-year-old daughter to school smelly, hungry and riddled with head lice and scabies has been convicted of neglect. Sian Corbett-Pitman, 23, from Tauranga, was sentenced last week to 12 months’ intensive supervision and 100 hours’ community work. She had pleaded guilty.

Her lawyer, Tony Rickard-Simms, said in court his client was “naive, inexperienced and had difficulty caring for herself, let alone a child” and she recognised she needed help. After the girl’s condition deteriorated between February and June this year, Child, Youth and Family was told and the girl and her mother were taken to Tauranga Hospital.

The girl’s appearance was described as unkempt, her clothes were often dirty and as well as being heavily infested with head lice, she had not bathed. She often told her teacher she had not had breakfast and did not have any lunch.

The child was placed in her grandmother’s care and she is now attending another school. Corbett-Pitman told police she had noticed her daughter’s health had deteriorated and believed it was because of overcrowding at her home.

Judge Harding told Corbett-Pitman that, while the offending may have occurred at a time when her home was grossly overcrowded, she had let the situation go on for too long.

“Your standard of care to your daughter fell well below the standard expected by anyone. If you can’t do better than that, then no doubt Child, Youth and Family will remove the child from your care, which overall would probably be a bad thing because a child needs its mother.

Judge Harding added: “But if you can’t look after her appropriately, then someone else will.”

 

Girl abused for a year, then killed by her mother.

Faith Leaso

Faith Leaso, aged 8, died at the hands of her mother after enduring a year of abuse, including being beaten with a metal vacuum cleaner pipe.

Girl ‘abused for year before death’.

An 8-year-old girl suffered a year of abuse at the hands of her New Zealand mother – including being beaten with metal pipes – before being found dead at her home, a court has heard.

Ane Leaso has been charged with torture and two counts of assault for allegedly physically abusing her daughter Faith. Faith’s body was found in a suburban Cairns apartment on Monday night – police have not ruled out charging Leaso with her murder.

Leaso is also alleged to have bashed Faith, who was born in Tauranga, with a metal vacuum cleaner pipe, the Cairns court heard. Last night, Leaso’s parents, Paulo and Ipu, of Tauranga, said the death of their granddaughter was “very painful”.

But they do not want to make any judgment about what happened to their granddaughter until they see their daughter. “Accidents can happen to anyone. We love her, that’s why we want to get there. Now my granddaughter’s gone and my daughter needs help – she needs love,” Mr Leaso told the Herald.

“Those kind of things can happen to anyone, but in the meantime we’re really concerned about my daughter.” Mr Leaso and his wife will travel to Cairns on Monday to bury Faith and support their 27-year-old daughter.

Leaso has two other daughters younger than Faith, Gloria and Harmony, and is due to give birth next month. Australian police prosecutor Senior Constable Bob Soper told the Cairns Magistrates Court on Wednesday that once forensic and pathology tests were carried out it was possible that Leaso could be charged with murder, the Australian reported.

“The defendant has made admissions that she caused the death of the child by assaulting her over a long period,” Mr Soper said. Leaso allegedly “repeatedly assaulted” Faith with a metal vacuum cleaner pipe after abusing her for a year before her death.

“The 8-year-old child [suffered] from a prolonged period of physical and emotional abuse for 12 months,” Mr Soper told the court. A midwife had told police Leaso could have been suffering from postnatal depression during the period of abuse, he said.

Leaso withdrew Faith from primary school to hide the pattern of abuse, he told the court. “In November 2010 the defendant removed her child from school following an intervention by the Department of Child Safety, it is alleged to conceal the child’s injuries by taking her out of school.”

When he arrives in Cairns, Mr Leaso hopes to help his daughter “really repent and turn back to God”. “Now my granddaughter’s gone but what we’re concerned about is the soul of my daughter.”

Paulo and Ipu Leaso adopted Ane from Samoa when she was 2 and took her back to Tauranga with their elder daughter, also called Ipu. The girls were raised and schooled there.

After Faith was born, the family moved to Australia in 2005 to pioneer a Samoan church in Cairns. Mr Leaso’s two daughters stayed there while he and his wife came back to New Zealand in 2010.

While the couple were in Cairns, they looked after Faith. “She was a really good girl … a very good girl,” Mr Leaso said. His elder daughter, Ipu, who also lives in Cairns, called him on Monday and told him that his granddaughter had died. “It was a very, very big shock to us.”

Leaso’s young daughters are staying with her partner of two years, Matthew Webb, but Mr Leaso said he and his wife would look after them when they arrive in Cairns next week. He hoped to bring the girls back to New Zealand with him. Mr Leaso said Faith’s father lived in New Zealand but was “not in the picture”.

 

Father beats 4-year-old daughter for soiling herself.

Speaking from personal experience; small children who are toilet trained will sometimes soil themselves if they are stressed or in a situation where they are too shy or scared to ask if they can use the toilet. Beating the living crap out of them tends not to make their situation any better, no matter how often or how hard you do it.

Father beats daughter for soiling herself.

A Tauranga father who became enraged when his 4-year-old daughter soiled herself has admitted an assault charge. He dragged her into the bathroom, held her under a cold shower, and repeatedly slapped her, leaving marks and bruises on her face and body.

The man pleaded guilty to a charge of assault on child when he appeared in Tauranga District Court yesterday. The identity of the solo father, in his 30s, was suppressed on an interim basis by Judge Christopher Harding, to protect the identity of the victim.

The defendant’s lawyer, Herman Roose, argued in favour of suppression to not only protect the child but also her two older siblings. Mr Roose said it was clear police accepted this was an isolated incident rather than a pattern of behaviour.

Th court was told that last month, the Tauranga father became enraged when he found his daughter in the toilet with faeces on her hands, legs and clothing. He dragged her by her clothing about 9m to the bathroom and forced her under a cold shower.

Fighting to hold the youngster under the cold water, he grabbed her by the back of the neck, causing her to fall several times. During the struggle he also slapped her about seven times on her bottom, the back of her legs, her back and face while she was screaming and struggling to get free.

When asked by police how forceful the slaps were on a scale of one to 10, the defendant said 10. His daughter’s injuries included marking and bruising to her face, neck, back, bottom and upper back of her legs. The defendant said he also told his daughter he “did not want her”.

Throughout the assault, the girl’s older siblings, both aged under 8 years old, could hear what was going in. Later that morning the defendant took his daughter into her kindergarten and told staff what he had done, saying: “I don’t want to be a statistic like on TV, I don’t know what to do.”

When spoken to by police about the assault, he said he was stressed and struggling to deal with his daughter who had been regularly soiling herself for four to six weeks. The defendant said he felt like strangling his daughter at the time of the assault.

He expressed remorse and acknowledged he needed help. Judge Harding remanded the man on bail for sentencing on January 25, 2012.

I give this guy two points, one for ‘manning up’ and admitting he has a problem and another for pleading guilty, unlike most of the scum featured on this blog, who do the exact opposite.

Killer referred to dying baby as ‘zombie boy’.

Cezar Taylor

On July 28 2010, five days after suffering a vicious assult from his mother’s boyfriend, 6-month-old Cezar Taylor died in hospital of severe brain injuries. In the days before his death, Cezar was referred to by his accused killer James Allan Hemana as ‘zombie boy’.

Baby called ‘zombie boy’ before dying.

A six month-old baby was referred to as “zombie boy” after being held upside down, violently shaken and dropped on a bed, the Crown says. James Hemana has denied murdering baby Cezar Taylor but pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Cezar was taken to Middlemore hospital with severe brain injuries and died five days later on July 28, 2010. Crown prosecutor Josh Shaw opened the Crown case this morning and told the court that Hemana’s cousin took two photographs of baby Cezar on her mobile phone, days before he was admitted to hospital.

“He was constantly vomiting, barely awake and his eyes would roll. He was referred to as ‘zombie boy’,” Mr Shaw said. He said Hemana was living with baby Cezar’s mother in Mangere and was jealous of the six-month old. He would also get angry when the baby would cry.

Mr Shaw said that on one occasion, Cezar was crying and woke Hemana, who yelled and swore at the baby. Hemana is alleged to have grabbed the baby by the front of his onesie pajamas.

“He violently punches him back and forth repeatedly before dropping him on to the bed.” Mr Shaw said Hemana also picked Cezar up by one leg and again violently shook him before dropping him on the bed.

He said Cezar’s mother, Victoria Taylor, tried to intervene. Hemana is alleged to have told her: “I don’t give a f***, b****. I’ll waste all of yous”. Mr Shaw said Ms Taylor described her son as a “very different baby” after the two incidents.

“Most of the time he was effectively lifeless and unresponsive.” He read from a statement from Ms Taylor: “Before he was alert. He would talk away, watch TV. Now he just sits there and rolls his eyes. He looked like a dog and just sat there.”

James Allan Hemana

It was about five days later that Ms Taylor took her son to hospital. Mr Shaw said she was prevented from going earlier by Hemana. He said Hemana did not go to the hospital with Ms Taylor, told her not to mention him and to say bruises on the baby’s head were caused by bumps and falls.

“In short, in anger and frustration, he gambled with Cezar’s life and ultimately took his life.”

2-year-old boy sought by CYFS killed.

James Joseph Ruhe Lawrence

2-year-old James Joseph Ruhe Lawrence, who was being “sought” by CYFS (NZ’s child protection agency) died of non-accidental injuries at his home on the morning of Monday 14th November.

Homicide inquiry into death of toddler James.

A woman was heard screaming “what did you do?” shortly before ambulance officers discovered the body of a 2-year-old boy at an Auckland property. Police have launched a homicide investigation into the death of James Joseph Ruhe Lawrence on Monday.

Ambulance staff were called to a house on the corner of Takitimu St and Kupe St in Orakei about 11am on Monday, where they found James’ body. A post-mortem examination was conducted yesterday, but results have yet to be released.

Grant Bennett, northern regional director of Child Youth and Family, said the case of James’ safety came to their notice four weeks ago, but neither James nor his mother were previously known to the agency.

“We visited the home several times and were actively attempting to find mother and child. Despite this, we had been unable to speak with his mother or sight James to check on his wellbeing,” said Mr Bennett.

Neighbours said a couple in their 20s or early 30s had moved in only a couple months ago. Te Pokuru Titoko, 19, who lives next door, said his family had occasionally helped the man who lived with James jump-start his car.

Mr Titoko said that on Monday morning he heard a woman scream, “What did you do? What did you do?”, to which a man yelled back, “I don’t know.” He said the woman then screamed, “I hate you, I hate you.” A man replied, “Sorry.”

An ambulance arrived shortly after, followed by several police cars. What seemed to be a gathering of the couple’s friends and family took place on the front lawn, with more shouting. A St John Ambulance spokeswoman said CPR was conducted but the 2-year-old died at the house.