How Could You? Hall of Shame-New Zealand-Annette-Maree and Anthony Franzetis and LawsuitUPDATED

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 Waipukurau , New Zealand, foster parent “Annette-Maree Franzetis, aged 52, faces 13 representative charges of ill-treating and assaulting two girls and a boy while her husband Anthony, aged 51 faces three charges of ill-treating and assaulting a boy who were in their care between 1998 and 2008.”

The victims have interim name suppression but during the judge alone trial in Napier District Court one of the alleged victims, now 21, told a court she and others suffered years of ill-treatment and assaults at the hands of their foster parents.

She described how she was frequently assaulted by the Franzetis during the 10 years that she spent in their care and how she was neglected and ill-treated.

When she told a social worker that she was being hit, the social worker told Annette-Marie Franzetis .

When social workers or others visited the family’s house, her foster mother would behave affectionately, but would later resort to her abusive self, she said.

As well as doing all household cleaning and cooking, the woman said she had to pluck hairs from her foster mother’s legs and chin most nights.

Her brother was made to sleep in a caravan, without a mattress or bedding, and was rarely given food.

He had to steal food from others at school, or steal money to buy food but when the Franzetis found out he had stolen something he was beaten.

The Franzetis took her to live with them in Brisbane in August 2008, and it was there she left them after Annette-Marie choked her when she became angry at the way she was unpacking their belongings.

Mrs Franzetis however paints a very different picture of the time that the children spent in her care and said she still loves them, despite hearing what they have said about her in court.

Under cross-examination Mrs Franzetis said she could not recall whether she hit the children with a wooden spoon and was vague about her recollections of the children.

When asked by Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly if she saw being a foster parent as a way to make money, she said that you don’t make money out of caring for children.

She insisted the three alleged victims and two other foster children who gave evidence had been lying about being assaulted and neglected.

Mrs Fanzetis went on to say that she felt sad that they could talk when she had opened her home to them and she was adament that all the children had been well fed and well cared for.

Her sister Julie-Ann Turfrey, who also fostered children, agreed that you could not make money as a foster parent and said no-one was deprived of food and she never saw the children physically disciplined, although she was not present all the time.

The Franzetis’ natural son, Shane, told the court he felt the allegations were silly.”

 Hawkes Bay foster parents face multiple Assault Charges[Hawkes Bay 10/1/14 ]

“A man accused of beating and neglecting Child, Youth and Family foster children in his care has described the allegations as “absolute rubbish”.

Anthony Franzetis took the stand yesterday in the last day of a seven-day trial in which he and his wife faced charges.

Franzetis, 51, faces three charges of ill-treating and assaulting a boy in their care. His wife Annette-Maree, 52, faces 13 representative charges of ill-treating and assaulting the boy, his sister and another girl, including assaulting them with a hearth brush, a rolling pin and a wooden spoon, between 1998 and 2008.

The judge-alone trial before Judge Tony Adeane in Napier District Court had already heard that the alleged victims were made to do all the housework, were beaten, poorly fed, and the boy was made to sleep in a caravan and locked out of the house for extended periods.

Anthony Franzetis said he worked as a truck driver for six days a week and his wife was the children’s main caregiver. He recalled the boy, who was aged between 6 and 14 while in their care, as “a big time thief”, who stole from visitors, neighbours, and from the Franzetis and other children in their care.

But he denied ever assaulting the boy, or locking him out of the house for extended periods. The claims were “absolute rubbish” and the victims and two other witnesses had lied, he said.

He told the court the boy would steal food from the family pantry after he had eaten dinner, and that the Franzetis had put a padlock on the pantry on the advice of staff at Child, Youth and Family.

To discipline the boy he would occasionally make him sit at a barbecue table outside the house for up to hours at a time, he said.

He denied ever kicking foster children, as alleged, but said he had once given his birth son “a tap up the bum with my foot when he was younger”.

This occurred at a rugby game when the boy was about 9, and “it was a ‘pull your finger out tap’ as he walked past”, Franzetis said.

The foster son, now 22, and his younger sister, now 21, were each given $25,000 and an apology from the Ministry of Social Development last year, after it accepted the siblings had been abused and neglected by the Franzetis.

Judge Adeane remanded the couple on bail and will deliver his verdict on Friday.”

Abuse claims rubbish, says foster dad [The Dominion Post 10/1/14 by Martin Sharpe]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update:”Siblings who were neglected and beaten by their foster parents while in Child, Youth and Family care say they feel “bittersweet” at guilty verdicts handed down.

Annette-Maree Frantzetis, 52, and her husband Anthony, 51, appeared in Napier District Court yesterday after a seven-day judge-alone trial that ended on Tuesday.

Judge Tony Adeane found Annette-Maree Frantzetis guilty on six charges, including three representative charges of wilfully ill-treating three children, two charges of assaulting two children with a wooden spoon and one charge of assaulting a child with a hearth brush.

He found her husband guilty of a representative charge of willfully ill-treating one child.

The couple had the children in their care at Waipawa and Waipukurau between 1998 and 2008.

The siblings did not want to comment yesterday but Detective Sergeant Tim Smith said they felt “bittersweet” about the ruling: “But the charges are reflective of a very bad time in their lives.”

They were working on their victim impact statements in preparation for sentencing next month, he said.

The judge found Annette-Maree Frantzetis not guilty of seven representative charges, which included assaults with a rolling pin, vacuum cleaner pipe and broom.

Her husband was found not guilty on two charges of injuring the boy with intent.

The couple were charged after they returned to New Zealand from Australia in 2011 and one of the victims, who they had taken to Australia, warned authorities about their behaviour as she did not want any more children put in their care.

The victim, 21, and her brother, now 22, had been put in the Frantzetis’ care when their mother died and they were aged five and six.

Last year they each received $25,000 and an apology from the Ministry of Social Development, after it accepted they had been abused and neglected by the Frantzetis.

The judge said the victims were young and vulnerable when put in the couple’s care.

While the couple claimed the evidence had been made up, and that family videos shown to the court showed the children enjoying themselves, the Crown claimed this was contrived.

The judge said evidence provided by the children’s teachers had been consistent with the victims’ claims.

“A clear overall impression of neglect and mistreatment arises from the teachers’ evidence.”

Annette-Maree Frantzetis failed to provide adequate food and clothing, imposed “age-inappropriate duties, responsibilities and punishment”, failed to provide emotional support and used unjustified corporal punishment resulting in unnecessary suffering.

She and her husband had mistreated the boy by excluding him from the house, resulting in prolonged unnecessary suffering.

The ministry said it would not comment until the couple had been sentenced next month.

The Frantzetis did not wish to comment but Annette-Maree’s lawyer, Eric Forster, said he was “looking at all options”.”

Guilty verdicts ‘bittersweet’ for foster siblings [Stuff 10/4/14 by Martin Sharpe]

Update 2: “The Government has apologised to 43 people who suffered physical and emotional abuse while they were children in state care over the past 70 years.

As well as apologising, the Ministry of Social Development has made payments totalling $713,315 to the victims since it began addressing historic claims eight years ago.

Information provided to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act reveals that the average payment was $16,500, with sums varying between $4500 and $45,000.

The ministry’s deputy chief executive of risk and assurance, Wendy Venter, said the claims that resulted in payments consisted of a “wide range of allegations of abuse suffered by people in state care over the past 70 years”.

The vast majority of claims related to alleged abuse between the 1960s and 1980s and “they raise serious concerns about the care provided to children in a wide range of state facilities including social welfare, health, education and church-run homes as well as foster care and family homes”, she said.

The ministry would not provide details on the reasons for each claim, or the period over which the abuse occurred, saying “every abuse case has unique characteristics and the nature of the information collated, as a result of an investigation by the ministry, is extremely sensitive”.

The file on each case was typically 1000 pages or more, Venter said.

In 2006-07, the ministry established a historic claims team dedicated to investigating allegations of neglect or abuse by people in the care of Child, Youth and Family and its predecessors.

Of the 43 apologies, just one was made in 2009. Six were made in 2010, nine in 2011, 13 in 2012, nine last year, and five in the year to September 25.

Among the payments were two for $25,000 to the victims of Hawke’s Bay foster parents Annette-Maree and Anthony Frantzetis, both of whom will be sentenced next week for wilfully ill-treating children in their care between 1998 and 2008.

Venter said the Frantzetises’ victims experienced physical and emotional abuse, which “the ministry acknowledged by apologising to the people involved”.

The couple were found guilty after a seven-day judge-alone trial in Napier District Court last month.

Annette-Maree Frantzetis, 52, was found guilty on six charges, including three representative charges of wilfully ill-treating three children, two charges of assaulting two children with a wooden spoon and one charge of assaulting a child with a hearth brush.

Anthony, 51, was guilty of a representative charge of willfully ill-treating one child.

Judge Tony Adeane said evidence provided by the children’s teachers gave the “clear overall impression of neglect and mistreatment”.”

Payment, apologies to victims of child abuse[Stuff 11/15/14 by Marty Sharpe]