How Could You? Hall of Shame-New Zealand

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Aukland, New Zealand, a child was alleged to be sexually abused in foster care after spending most of the first nine years of her life in state care. Then, she was returned to her family in December 2008. Two years later, her biological parents were arrested on severe abuse charges. Now her father has been “jailed for three years after pleading guilty to child abuse charges in a case that shocked New Zealand and sparked a national inquiry.

The 33-year-old man pleaded guilty in November to the charges -ones of assault, which included smacking, slapping and kneeing a child – and one of wilfully allowing her to be ill-treated, and failing to seek medical treatment.

Today in the Auckland District Court he was jailed for three years with a minimum non-parole period of two years.

The man’s wife had earlier pleaded guilty to 25 child abuse charges and was in December jailed for seven and a half years, with a non-parole period of five years.

West Auckland man has been jailed for three years after pleading guilty to child abuse charges in a case that shocked New Zealand and sparked a national inquiry.

The 33-year-old man pleaded guilty in November to the charges -ones of assault, which included smacking, slapping and kneeing a child – and one of wilfully allowing her to be ill-treated, and failing to seek medical treatment.

Today in the Auckland District Court he was jailed for three years with a minimum non-parole period of two years.

The man’s wife had earlier pleaded guilty to 25 child abuse charges and was in December jailed for seven and a half years, with a non-parole period of five years.

The couple were arrested in December 2010 after the girl was found hiding in a wardrobe with injuries to nearly every part of her body. She was starving, dehydrated and anaemic from internal bleeding.

At the sentencing of the mother, the court heard that the girl had nightmares about what was done to her. The abuse she suffered including having her toenail torn out and having part of her scalp pulled off.

In her victim-impact statement the girl said: “In my dreams my mother and father are out of jail and trying to find me to hurt me some more.”

Her brother, in a statement he insisted was read to court, said he wanted his parents to 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.”

The case stunned social agencies, seemingly exposing successive errors in their handling of the family, and sparking a ministerial report that was issued late last year after the mother was sentenced. None of the 25 agencies involved with the girl and her family had been aware of the abuse.

The mother went to the cells saying she was not a bad parent and was simply trying to protect her other three children.

Defence lawyer Lorraine Smith said the mother’s actions were those of a woman let down by the system and by multiple agencies.

“My submission is that both the prime minister and the minister for social development failed both [the child] and her mother.”

The mother wrote to Prime Minister John Key asking for help. He passed the letter on to Social Development Minister Paula Bennett, who offered six counselling sessions for the girl.

After the mother was sentenced, Bennett said: “In hindsight, I wish I was writing back and saying, ‘The police are knocking on your door, we’re removing your children from you right now’.”

But blame for the abuse lay squarely with the parents, she said. “That child was so deeply failed by those very parents that were supposed to protect her, so it’s fine to sit back now and try and blame someone else or the Government, while in the meantime you are dehydrating, starving and beating your child.

“I’m afraid, no, I don’t take responsibility for that. She should stand up and take it herself.”

The nine-year-old girl spent most of her life in CYF care, after she was taken away from her parents when she was a baby.
She was returned to them in December 2008 after it was alleged she was sexually abused in her foster home.
A CYF report released by Bennett after the mother was sentenced made a number of recommendations.

These included better information sharing, new CYF liaison workers for schools, mandatory reporting of abuse and neglect, urgent research on ‘family-first’ care and a new child protection court.

Bennett said progress had been made on many of the 13 recommendations and others were included in the Green Paper currently out for public consultation. ”
Three year sentence for father of abused girl
[TV NZ 2/7/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Since we don’t have a puzzle piece called getting rid of stupidity, we will go with postplacement. First, she was sexually abused in foster care after spending 9 years there. Why was she returned to the original family? Why wasn’t that family monitored better? 25 agencies were involved with this family? It is sad that there are that many different social service agencies at all. The communication among them must be disastrous. Streamlining the system is needed.