Maori Child Abuse

Maori children are four times more likely to suffer from abuse and neglect than white children in New Zealand, but mentioning this inconvenient statistic in the media will get you branded as a racist.

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.

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Anthony Lawrence Roma will kill again.

I have no doubt that we will soon be seeing this name in the news again soon, as we read about the violent death of another innocent child.

Anthony Lawrence Roma, 45, who was jailed for life after breaking into a Napier home and murdering 7-year-old Simon Reaney in 1991, was released on parole last December 14th.

‘Kill a Pakeha’ murderer released (Pakeha is a derogatory term used by Maori when referring to white skinned people).

A man who bashed to death a seven-year-old boy, believing he had to “kill a Pakeha” during a drug-induced psychotic episode, has been released on parole. Anthony Lawrence Roma, 45, was jailed for life after breaking into a Napier home and murdering Simon Reaney in 1991.

He bludgeoned Simon to death with a car jack before trying to kill his father and then his 11-year-old brother, who was put on life support for two weeks. Roma was at the time suffering a drug- and alcohol-induced psychotic episode during which he said voices had told him to “kill a Pakeha”.

He told a psychiatrist he believed he was a Maori warrior and had to kill, but an insanity plea was rejected at trial. Roma was released on parole in 2003, but was recalled to prison the following year for breaching his parole conditions by committing an indecent act in a Manukau shopping mall.

The Parole Board last month granted his second release from prison, saying he he had made “huge changes in his life” since he was recalled. While his crime was appalling and the Reaneys remained devastated by their tragic loss, Roma had credibly expressed remorse for what he had done, said the board.

“He has an insight into his own offending and behaviour and an openness about him which was never previously the case,” it said. Roma has recently been housed in a self-care unit, and has been allowed on several home leave stints and escorted shopping trips. He has also been participating in a release-to-work scheme.

Roma was assessed as a medium to high risk of sexual reoffending, and medium risk of other offending, but the board said the risk was offset by an “excellent release proposal” which would see him living at the home of a firm ex-military man he had known since childhood.

The ex-serviceman’s family, however, was less than convinced. In a subsequent decision released this month, the Parole Board noted some family members had expressed concern that Roma would be around for a family wedding.

After finding out details of his offending, the family members were worried Roma would be around children and alcohol at the celebrations. The board revoked its previous decision, which would have seen Roma released on November 23, and set a new release date after the wedding.

Roma was released on December 14, with conditions including he never consume alcohol or illicit drugs for the rest of his life, and that he observe a 10pm to 6am curfew. He must also attend alcohol and drug counselling and psychological assessment and treatment as directed.

Sensible Sentencing NZ/Anthony Lawrence Roma

 

Another child death goes unpunished.

Hail-Sage McClutchie

Police say no-one will be charged over 22-month-old Hail-Sage McClutchie’s death. A quote from Desi Walker, Sage’s aunt sums it up nicely: “What is the value of a baby in New Zealand? This keeps happening again and again. I just feel numb and sad.”

Another child death goes unpunished.

For 18 months Delia Percy has waited for someone to be held to account for her granddaughter’s horrific death. As the months trickled past, the thought that one day she’d see justice served kept her going. But this week all hope faded as police sat Mrs Percy down and told her no-one will be charged over 22-month-old Hail-Sage McClutchie’s death.

The life of the “happy” Hamilton toddler was abruptly curtailed on September 27, 2009, while she was staying in Morrinsville with her mother Kelly Percy, and Ms Percy’s then-partner Adrian Wilson-Minimita. It was a visit that didn’t occur often for Sage.

From birth, she had been brought up by her grandmother in Hamilton, with her older brother Joey, who had also been taken off their mother, because Delia Percy didn’t like the environment her daughter lived in. “There was lots of drugs and alcohol, so I kept her [Sage] here,” she said.

Occasionally her daughter – who had a third child to Mr Wilson-Minimita (now in Child, Youth and Family’s care) – would take Sage for a weekend. But contact was limited. On Friday September 18, however, Kelly Percy took Sage to stay with her for the weekend.

Mrs Percy said she didn’t want the youngster to go, but her daughter was persistent. Sage was supposed to return to Hamilton the following Tuesday but never made it. Instead, on Saturday, September 26, Mrs Percy got a call from Waikato Hospital telling her to go there immediately.

She arrived to find Sage on life support. Hospital staff fought furiously through the night to save her life, but she died early the next morning from serious head injuries. Mrs Percy was there to watch the child she had cared for and loved over the past 22-months take her last breath.

For 18 months police tried everything to get to the truth of what happened in the days and hours leading up to Sage’s death. But after numerous interviews, an autopsy and expert forensic examinations both here and overseas, they have decided there is not enough evidence to prosecute over her death, or the incidents leading up to it.

Now the facts of Sage’s death remain a mystery, ultimately one that will be left for a coroner to try to unravel. The news has floored Delia Percy and Sage’s aunt Desi Walker – Kelly Percy’s sister. “Mum broke down and just cried and cried,” Mrs Walker said.

Mrs Walker was there when the police – including lead officer Detective Sergeant Rod Carpinter – broke the news. “We just sat there and thought ‘what?’. “They said unless someone admitted something, nothing was going to happen.” Kelly Percy was also there as police revealed a timeline for the days leading up to Sage’s death – including how long it took for the toddler to get the medical help she so desperately needed.

It revealed several people knew something wasn’t right with Sage in her final days, Mrs Walker said. Two days before her death, her mother and Mr Wilson-Minimita took Sage to a Morrinsville medical centre, but left before the child could be seen by a doctor, because Mr Wilson-Minimita said he needed “a feed”.

“I turned to her [Kelly] and said ‘what the hell were you fellas doing?’,” Mrs Walker said. She said her sister then broke down and said “I’m a terrible mother”. The Waikato Times has been unable to directly contact Kelly Percy or Mr Wilson-Minimita.

Mrs Walker has tried to get more information out of her sister in the hope of providing new evidence, but she has had no luck. At the very least, Mrs Walker feels those who knew Sage was unwell should be charged with failure to provide the necessities of life. “Do I think they should be charged? Yes. Do I think the charges would stick? No. You have to be able to prove it.”

She likened Sage’s death to the Kahui twins death in 2006. Their father, Chris Kahui, was charged with their murders, but was found not guilty at trial. No one has yet been charged over that double killing. “What is the value of a baby in New Zealand? This keeps happening again and again. I just feel numb and sad.”

Mr Carpinter treated Sage’s death as a murder investigation from early on, and was present at the autopsy when Sage’s injuries were described as being of a “non-accidental nature”. But as much as he wanted to put someone behind bars for Sage’s death, he was not prepared to “turn the key” unless he was sure they did it.

Waikato district crime services manager, Detective Inspector Chris Page, said the investigation had not conclusively shown that criminal offending had caused or contributed to Sage’s death. However, Mr Page said they would continue to work with all parties involved so they could discover what really occurred and help bring the family closure.

‘MY SON NOT TO BLAME’ The mother of a man at the centre of the police investigation into Hail-Sage McClutchie’s death says her son would never harm a child. For 18 months the Morrinsville-based Wilsons have kept quiet  shying away from talking to the Waikato Times about Sage’s death.

But yesterday, after hearing no-one would be charged, grandmother Elizabeth Wilson finally spoke out. Her son, Adrian Wilson-Minimita, 22, was the partner of Sage’s mother, Kelly Percy, and was with the toddler in the days leading up to her death. But Mrs Wilson is adamant her son had nothing to do with the injuries that caused Sage’s death.

“You should see my son with children – he’s closer to them than he is to adults,” she said. She said the finger was being pointed at Mr Wilson-Minimita simply because he was Sage’s step-father. “Anyone that knows my son knows he’s a naughty boy – but that’s not him [someone that hurts a child].

“I firmly believe that my son has declared, to the best of his ability, what is the truth to the police. He has never misled anyone – we have never hidden from anything.” That included that Sage fell while playing at a playground. Mrs Wilson said “in no way, shape or form” did her son hurt Sage.

“I want answers as much as you do. Baby needs to be laid to rest … her soul can’t rest until then. However, I don’t have the answers.” Mrs Wilson said the past 18 months had been like one big nightmare. Her son had a child to Kelly – Selwyn – who was taken into Child, Youth and Family care after Sage’s death.

While Mrs Wilson didn’t want to comment specifically on whether she was trying to gain full custody of Selwyn, she said the finger of blame had also affected her. “I’m the grandmother of Selwyn and I’ve done nothing wrong, yet I’ve been subject to being a perpetrator as well.

“Hopefully one day we’ll have answers – the correct answers. Sage was such a beautiful girl – no child deserves that. She was one of those children that spoke with her eyes.”

Murdered toddlers skull ‘Like crazy paving’.

Toddler’s skull like smashed glass, jury told.

A Northland toddler who died after receiving a serious head injury had a skull which looked like “smashed glass”, a jury at the High Court in Whangarei has been told. Kyle Skerten, 23, of Kerikeri, is charged with murdering his 15-month-old stepson, Riley Justin Osborne, who died on December 23, 2009 – four days after he suffered a severe brain injury at his home in Cobham Rd.

In the Crown’s opening address, Mike Smith said scans of the toddler’s head showed a complex fracture that he described as like crazy paving or smashed glass. The Crown says the injury was non-accidental. Skerten has claimed he found Riley on the floor of the bedroom with his head against the leg of the wooden cot.

Skerten also faces a charge of possession of a pipe for smoking methamphetamine, eight charges of offering to sell cannabis, nine charges of supplying a precursor substance – pseudo ephedrine – and four of offering to supply methamphetamine.

RIP little guy, you won’t be forgotten. Full article here.

13 year old boy abused by mother and stepfather.

Son allegedly beaten and choked.

Yvonne Shirley Dainty, 42, is charged along with her husband, Brett Nolan Dainty, 39, of assaulting the boy. But the boy’s six-year-old half-brother remains at the Auckland family home being cared for by the pair while they are on bail. The 13-year-old is Mrs Dainty’s son from a previous relationship. The six-year-old is the son of them both.

The couple who are accused of choking, punching and beating their son with household implements are still caring for another young child. The Auckland pair face charges of battering their 13-year-old son with a cordless telephone, an electric jug cord, a plank of wood, an extension cord, a broomstick handle and a rubber flip-flop. The stepfather also allegedly supplied the boy with cannabis.

Child, Youth and Family general manager of operations John Henderson said the family was known to CYF “through a small number of isolated incidents over the years”. “Abuse has never been able to be substantiated.

Full article here.

CYF did not know murdered baby existed.

Abuse baby’s birth secret.

CYF, New Zealands child protection agency; were not even aware of murdered toddler Hail-Saige McClutchie’s existence even though she was born into a family with a “horrendous history” of child abuse.

Hail-Saige McClutchie, 22 months, died in the early hours of September 27 last year after being taken to Waikato Hospital with serious head injuries she suffered at a Morrinsville house the night before. At the time Child, Youth and Family (CYF) admitted Hail-Saige’s “wider” family were known to them, but said they had had no prior involvement with Hail-Saige herself.

This morning CYF chief executive Ray Smith confirmed to the Waikato Times this was because the agency had not known her parents – who they’d already removed two children from – went on to have another baby, Hail-Saige. They were alerted to her existence only after her death.

Full article here.

Nia Glassie murderers appeal sentences.

Wiremu Curtis

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision over an appeal by Wiremu Curtis, one of two brothers found guilty of murdering Rotorua toddler Nia Glassie. Curtis and his former partner, Nia’s mother Lisa Kuka, have appealed their convictions, saying the jury should have been offered a second option of neglect rather than manslaughter.

Curtis was sentenced in the High Court at Rotorua in February to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 17-1/2 years, for the August 2007 murder of the three-year-old. During the trial the court heard how Nia suffered months of misery. She was dropped on her head, put in a clothes dryer which was turned on, had wrestling moves performed on her and was flung off a clothesline before her short life ended at Starship Hospital in August 2007.

Nia Glassie

Prosecutors said the fatal blow was a kick delivered by one of the Curtis brothers. However, insufficient emphasis had been placed on the limited mental capacity of Wiremu Curtis, and whether he had “conscious appreciation” that his actions could lead to death, his lawyer Craig Horsley told the Court of Appeal in Wellington today.

Woman sentenced after son killed in crash.

A Wairarapa mother who crashed her car, killing her four-year-old son, was given community sentences in the High Court at Wellington today. Wendy-May Connon was found guilty in July of the manslaughter of Konrad Truger. She was sentenced today to six months’ community detention, two years’ intensive supervision including drug counselling and psychiatric assessment, 200 hours’ community work in road safety and child welfare areas, and was disqualified from driving for two years.

Connon was behind the wheel when her car left the road in Featherston, flipping and rolling several times, on January 16 last year. Konrad was thrown about 30m from the vehicle. He suffered severe brain injuries and died three days later. Crown prosecutor Mark O’Donoghue told the jury Connon was impaired from the cannabis in her system, she had also been speeding, and Konrad was only secured by a lap belt and wasn’t sitting in a booster seat.

Community service for manslaughter? Only in New Zealand! I remember reading about this when it first happened, she apparently was stoned and told her children that she wanted to see how fast her car would go. The little boy that died was in the middle of the rear seat because the two side seats were taken up by her dog (which was obviously more important to her than her son), and one of her daughters, both survived the crash.