A second Rotorua child has been admitted to Auckland's Starship Hospital with suspicious head injuries, prompting a specialist there to describe New Zealand's child abuse statistics as "a national scandal".
As Rotorua three-year-old Nia Glassie recovers in Starship from critical injuries allegedly sustained after weeks of abuse at the hands of her whanau, a 12-week-old baby boy was flown to the hospital early on Saturday with suspicious head injuries.
He is in a stable condition.
Senior Sergeant Greg Sowter said the Auckland crime squad had been asked to make initial inquiries with the baby's family at the hospital.
Dr Liz Segedin, who cares for the small victims, last night told the New Zealand Herald up to one child a month was admitted to the Starship with brain injuries caused by abuse.
"We know it's high; we know it's a national scandal – or should be," she said.
"It's extremely distressing when we hear absolute nonsense stories (about what happened to the child) that we know are not true.
"It's hard for the staff but your job in the intensive care unit is to get on and do what we can and look after the children and families as best we can, as we do with any other child."
Dr Segedin's comments follow those of Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples, who has been outspoken about the statistics involving Maori child abuse.
He yesterday said he was "horrified" at another alleged Maori child abuse case, but said it was too simplistic to blame the issue on ethnicity.
"How do I feel when I hear they're Maori? I feel ashamed. I feel guilty," he said.
Mr Sharples said the alleged behaviour in Nia's case was "absolutely intolerable".
However, he said problems of child abuse stemmed from a dysfunctional culture which happened among poverty-stricken and underachieving communities, a group in which Maori were too highly represented.
Five people reappear in Rotorua District Court today accused of harming Nia.
William Curtis, 48, a Rotorua driver, entered no plea when he appeared last week on two charges of abusing Nia over four months.
Four others, including two sons of Curtis, also appeared in court during the week charged with assaulting Nia – her stepfather, Wiremu Curtis, 17, his brother Michael William Curtis, 21; Michael Curtis' girlfriend Oriwa Terrina Kemp, 17; and their relative Michael Paul Pearson, 19.
They face allegations of abuse which include that the toddler was hung from a washing line and spun in a clothes dryer.
Nia's condition improved yesterday and her father, Glassie Glassie Jnr, flew from Sydney to be at her bedside.
She had been living with her mother and other whanau members in a house in the Rotorua suburb of Koutu.
A Starship spokesman said last night that Nia was in a serious but stable condition, but refused to say if that meant she was out of a drug-induced coma.
Prime Minister Helen Clark condemned the abuse and on TVNZ's Breakfast programme called for people to act when they knew of abuse.
"I cannot believe that a child subjected to that level of horror, sadism, torture - that nobody knew," she said.
"I can't believe that and people have got to start turning in those who frankly are maiming and killing our children."
On Newstalk ZB, Miss Clark agreed the Maori abuse figures were concerning but said the problem was one for the whole of New Zealand.
"They (statistics) are not good and that is a cause for Maori to reflect on and I believe act on.
"Us lecturing people won't get the results we need, which is far fewer small children subjected to this sadism, torture and horror that small children in our country have been subjected to." - NZPA
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rant over,just had enough.
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