Nothing’s changed since Nia, Moko

Moko died from injuries sustained during a prolonged period of abuse.

A woman who has worked with abused women and children has told an inquest nothing has improved in the years between two preschoolers' violent deaths.

Three-year-old Moko Rangitoheriri was abused and beaten to death by his caregivers Tania Shailer and David Haerewa in Taupō in 2015.

The pair were sentenced to 17 years in prison for his manslaughter.

An inquest into his death has re-opened in Rotorua today. The first part of the inquest was held in August.

Giving evidence, social advocate Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said nothing had really changed since 2008 when another toddler, Nia Glassie, was violently killed by the adults she lived with.

Social factors affecting whānau, including poverty, were not being addressed by the government and agencies found it very hard to provide the assistance needed, Ms Raukawa-Tait said.

More needed to be done to provide a family-wide approach with a strong emphasis on cultural identity, she said.

Paediatrician Johan Morreau told the inquest the level of violence meted out to Moko was seriously disturbing.

He had never seen a comparable case in his 34-year career, he said.

"For me this is symptomatic of the level to which we, as a country, have undervalued our children and significant proportions of our people; and how collectively we've allowed our standards of support and care to fail."

People needed to clearly understand the issues in society that made Moko's death more likely, Dr Morreau said.

During the first part of the inquest in August, Moko's mother Nicola Dally-Paki said she placed Moko and his sister with Shailer and Haerewa because she had known Shailer for 15 years and assumed the children would be safe.

The Ministry for Vulnerable Children told the inquest then that Shailer did not trigger any alarms and seemed credible to staff, and that social workers could not be expected to be mind-readers.

Today, the ministry told the inquest it had made changes to its Taupō office since Moko's death.

It had employed six new staff, bringing the number of social workers in the office to 13.

Bay of Plenty regional manager Tayelva Petley said Moko's death had been a sad journey for staff, as it was their aim wherever possible to prevent mokopuna coming to harm.

Staff were deeply saddened they were unable to do that for Moko, she said.

Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft is also due to give evidence to the inquest.

You may also like....

3 comments

I don't buy it, sorry.

Posted on 03-10-2017 20:19 | By morepork

"Social factors affecting whnau, including poverty,..." Having grown up in a State House in Lower Hutt, I think we qualified as "poverty stricken". My father was disabled by heart attacks and my mother cleaned other people's houses and took in laundry so we could eat. There was no WINZ in those days. But, getting back to the point, "poverty" has nothing to do with the value you place on your family or whanau. Love is not bank balance dependent. According to this, if we just gave all families with young kids who might be at risk, say, $100,000, there'd be no more child abuse? It is about values. Some people have children they don't want, and continue their destructive life patterns whether they have money or not. They don't respect their kids because they don't respect ANYONE except themselves. Dogs are licensed; kids are not.


An Opinion

Posted on 03-10-2017 21:24 | By R1Squid

Quoted "Social factors affecting whnau, including poverty, were not being addressed by the government and agencies found it very hard to provide the assistance needed, Ms Raukawa-Tait said." I say phoey. It is much closer to home than the Government. Try drug/alcohol addled minds of people that should not be allowed to have children let alone look after someone elses!!!


Nothing changed?

Posted on 04-10-2017 09:24 | By rogue

Something changed alright.... how come the infamous Bradford anti smacking law didn't affect the stats?


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.