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.”

 

Pedophile monks released after less than 2 years in prison.

Bernard Kevin McGrath

Church scandal: Pedophile monks released.

Two pedophile monks jailed for New Zealand’s most notorious Catholic sexual abuse scandal have been released on parole, each serving less than half their sentences in prison.

In 2006, Bernard Kevin McGrath was found guilty of 22 charges against nine victims aged 7 to 15 and was sentenced to five years in jail. McGrath was released on parole in February 2008, just less than two years into his five-year term. It is understood he is living in Christchurch and his ties with the Order have been cut.

In 2008, Rodger William Moloney was found guilty of seven charges of sex abuse against boys and also jailed. He was released in September 2009, 13 months into his 33-month sentence.

Moloney has been brought back into the fold of his Catholic Order, which will give him a home in Australia once his parole period is up. The Order of St John of God says it is the best way to care for and supervise him, but an independent member of the Order’s professional standards committee says he is being hidden and protected.

Rodger William Moloney

Moloney was head of Christchurch’s Marylands residential school for boys with learning difficulties, where more than 100 victims were systematically abused in the 1970s.

When a complainant first came forward in the 1970s regarding Bernard McGrath, St John of God shifted McGrath to Australia where he was put in charge of a boarding school and repeated his abuse. The Order at the time paid one of McGrath’s victims – a student with learning difficulties – $90,000 in compensation and for him to keep quiet.

Full article here.

Brain-damaged woman stomps on babys head.

Brain-damaged mother sentenced for assaults on children.

A brain-damaged Rotorua mother of nine has been sentenced for seriously assaulting two of her children. The 37-year-old woman had previously been convicted of manslaughter after killing her former partner following years of abuse at his hands.

The Daily Post reported that Ira-Ann Jose Emery was brain damaged after her more recent partner bashed her so badly that she lost the baby she was carrying. Emery admitted charges of assaulting her children when she appeared in Rotorua District Court.

Judge Jocelyn Munro sentenced her to four months’ community detention and 18 months’ intensive supervision. The court was told she stomped on the face of one toddler while wearing boots and left the other nursing black eyes. She often beat her five-year-old daughter with a steel bar and would not send them to daycare when they were covered in bruises.

Full article here or here.