Some child abuse cases in NZ - since Section 59 amended

Since the passing of the amendment to section 59, there has been a continual stream of child abuse cases including:

JUNE 2007

* About 1,500 babies in their mother's womb

* Porirua mum and step-father charged with mistreating 3 children, including 5 year old admitted to Wellington Hospital with serious head injuries

* 16 month old Remuera boy dies after beating while in care of relative. Sixteen-month-old Sachin died of head injuries suffered while being cared for by a relative in June. He spent three days connected to a life- support machine in Auckland's Starship children's hospital, before dying on June 21. An autopsy revealed he died from blunt force trauma to his head. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4204745a12855.html and http://www.stuff.co.nz/4221779a10.html

* 28-year-old woman charged with murdering a newborn baby found dead in the backyard of a Te Mome Road property in Alicetown.

* Death of 22 month old Tokoroa girl from severe burns – being cared for by step-father. Claims was burnt in hot shower but 17 hour delay before arriving at hospital. Still under investigation.

*An 18-month-old West Auckland toddler is in hospital with serious arm and leg injuries suffered on separate occasions and up to a month before medical treatment was sought. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10456014

*Dad allegedly made girls fight for right not to be beaten. A Hastings father gave his daughters boxing gloves and told them to fight – with the loser to get "a hiding", a court was told. The sisters, aged 11 and 13, donned the red gloves and began punching each other in the lounge till the oldest started crying. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4199250a10.html


JULY 2007

* About 1,500 babies in their mother's womb

* Hawkes Bay father shoots daughter with air rifle. Convicted and jailed for 6 months

* Christchurch mum-of-two found at P Lab. Charged with failing to provide necessaries of life and allowing home to be used for manufacturing P

* 3-year-old Rotorua girl seriously ill after 3 weeks of abuse by stepfather and extended family - now died

* A second Rotorua child - a 12-week-old baby - is in the Starship with suspicious head injuries. http://familyintegrity.blogspot.com/2007/07/30-july-2007-second-rotorua-child.html

*Boy, 8, kicked for being 'too slow' eating dinner http://www.stuff.co.nz/4189938a10.html

*Five-year-old high on P in drug house. Police found a five-year-old boy high on P during a raid on a drug house where methamphetamine was being cooked in a bedroom.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4195797a10.html

AUGUST 2007

* About 1,500 babies in their mother's womb

* Police will tomorrow arrest a Putaruru man for allegedly using weapons to beat his two stepsons aged 13 and 14, regularly over nine months, leaving them with bruises all over their upper body. http://familyintegrity.blogspot.com/2007/08/media_13.html

* A five-week-old girl with multiple breaks to both arms is the latest suspected child-abuse case being investigated by Christchurch police. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4168701a11.html#Scene_1

*A woman accused of failing to provide the necessaries of life to her 6-week-old baby has pleaded with a court to get the child back.... She has been charged with neglecting her legal duty to provide necessaries for her 6-week-old son in a way that endangered his life....Police said they had been told Kahotea-Jones took the baby to the park on an extremely cold winter's day dressed only in light clothing. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4193313a11.html

*Throwing pepper in a six-year-old boy's eyes as a punishment was an unthinking act, done under extreme stress, Lower Hutt District Court was today. Craig Leslie Ozich, 31, was sentenced by Judge John Walker to 150 hours' community service after pleading guilty to assault on a child...Judge Walker said Ozich had been boarding at a house where the boy and his mother lived. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4213154a12855.html


SEPTEMBER 2007

* About 1,500 babies in their mother's womb

* Yet Another Child Abuse Story. Catherine Lawson from Jigsaw, National Consultant, National Infrastructure for Children and Youth (NICY) who Witness Family Violence, speaks out following the recent case where a small three year old girl, nicknamed “Pumpkin”, who has been identified as a 3 year old child who has been living in a family violence environment. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0709/S00292.htm

* Police investigating baby death - Jyniah Te Awa. South Auckland police are investigating two houses following the death of a 10-month-old baby girl. The girl was taken to hospital from a Manurewa address on Sunday. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4214398a10.html and http://www.stuff.co.nz/4215743a10.html and http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10466030

OCTOBER 2007

* About 1,500 babies in their mother's womb

* VICTIM OF CURSE RITUAL: Janet Moses, 22, of Wainuiomata, was the mother of two little girls. She is thought to have drowned during an exorcism ceremony. A 14-year-old girl nearly died in the ritual that killed Wainuiomata mother Janet Moses. A total of six people were exorcised last month as relatives tried to drive out a makutu, or Maori curse, thought to have been sparked by the theft of a statue. The 14-year-old - a cousin of Ms Moses - was admitted to hospital before being taken into Child, Youth and Family care. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4271124a10.html Girl's eyes gouged to get rid of devil. A 14-year-old who nearly died during an exorcism needed emergency treatment to save her sight after relatives scratched at her eyes to remove the devil. The girl is a cousin of Janet Moses, the woman who died during the October 12 ceremony to lift a Maori curse. The girl had chunks gouged from her eyeballs. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4287818a11.html

November 2007

* About 1,500 babies in their mother's womb

* A mother who left her two- and four-year-old children to wander the streets unsupervised and hungry has been sentenced to community work. They also reported the children wandering outside, unsupervised and hungry, and not being able to find anything in the house but beer. Sometimes the children had injuries, including a burn to the cheek and black eyes. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4261575a10.html

* Pregnant at 11: Kiro cites girl's case in abuse plea - 19 November 2007
The case of a girl who became pregnant at 11 and had her baby when she was 12 was cited by Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro today when she made a plea for people to speak up against child abuse. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4280826a10.html

December 2007

* About 1,500 babies in their mother's womb

*Baby clings to life as police investigate injuries A two-month-old girl is clinging to life in Auckland's Starship Hospital as police investigate how she came to receive critical head injuries. Her two-year-old sister was taken into CYF care after her parents drove the baby to Middlemore Hospital on Friday afternoon. The baby was transferred to Starship the same day, with fears she would not survive. Detective Senior Sergeant David Lynch said it was unclear how the baby received her injuries. "We're keeping an open mind at the moment." http://www.stuff.co.nz/4340462a11.html
and http://stuff.co.nz/4340732a11.html and http://www.stuff.co.nz/4346092a10.html


`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
“This latest case is yet another wake-up call, following on from the high-profile Kahui case, that children will never be safe until we are honest enough as a country to identify and tackle the real causes of child abuse.” “An independent Inquiry would be an important first step,” says Mr McCoskrie of Family First