She's gone.

[Mrs Busa Pete]

Before he took his
final breath Kura leaned over his swollen and distorted body and
whispered in his ear for him to "go in peace".Kura and her husband
Finau
are still struggling with his violent death."I feel like my heart's
gone. My heart's been ripped out of my body because he was our heart,"
said Kura. "I thought I would get over it by now but I can't."Finau
spends a lot of time at Ngati's tiny grave, keeping it clean and tidy;
Kura often watches videos the couple took of his first steps, his
birthdays, all his important milestones.The couple were unable to have
children and didn't hesitate to take Ngati in when Maine Ngati asked
them to have him when he was a baby."He was a happy little boy. He
called us Mummy and Daddy. He didn't know anyone else," said Kura.Then
in November
2005 Maine wanted Ngati back despite having very little to do with him
for three years.Police were told Maine Ngati was claiming a benefit for
more children than were living with her and it was the threat of being
caught out
- and revenge against her cousin with whom she'd fought - that led to
her seeking custody."There's nothing that I have seen that showed she
wanted Ngati back for reasons of love," said Mr Middleton.A distraught
Kura fought for custody of Ngati. She now regrets doing it the "right
way"
through lawyers and wishes she had instead whisked Ngati away to a
place
her cousin would have never found him.Maybe, she says, he would have
still be alive that way."I was trying to do it the right way but as a
result he was dead within nine weeks."Kura said she tried to visit
Ngati
at his new home but no one would ever answer the door. She worries he
never knew why he suddenly had to change houses and had no contact with
the only people he'd ever known as Mum and Dad."I will always feel
guilty because in his mind when he was getting bashed he was probably
saying 'where's my mum, where's my dad?'."Mr Middleton said it was not
clear how often Ngati was beaten but it "certainly escalated" in the
last two days of his life.He believes the toileting problem was
evidence
of the boy's state of mind while in Maine and Fa'asisila's care."My
thoughts on that are that they beat him so much that he lost confidence
and he wet and pooed himself because he got so many beatings."Mr
Middleton said Ngati's final hours would have been excruciating.When
the
pathologist cut open his swollen arm they found all the tissue had died
from the beating he had suffered. There was a subdural haematoma which
was 5-10 days old as well as fresher trauma to the head from the recent
beatings.There was also an unusual patterning with bits of skin missing
from his arm, wrist and inside thigh - those injuries are from a weapon
police have been unable to find. They say Maine Ngati and Fa'asisila
got
rid of the weapon - more evidence that the couple knew what they were
doing was wrong.Kura and her husband did not see Ngati after he moved
and it is not clear if other relatives were aware of the abuse the
little boy suffered - they certainly denied any knowledge of it while
giving evidence in court. Ngati's siblings testified and are now being
cared for by others.
Mr Middleton said it was possible the beatings never occurred in the
presence of other adults, but it was hard to believe no one noticed
anything wrong.On the morning of Ngati's death one of Maine's relative
said she gave him a high-five during breakfast and everything seemed
fine.
This would have been after he suffered two serious beatings the day
before, one so bad that he was unable to use his arm."It's impossible
to
think he was 'quite happy' the morning he died."Mr Middleton believes
it
may have been a case of other relatives "wilfully ignoring" what was
going on. "The other family members at best didn't want to know."In
some
families abuse of this nature is commonplace and every now and then it
turns to tragedy as it has in this case. The answer is never hit your
kids."Kura agrees and says it sickens her to see what happened to
Ngati.
She no longer considers Maine a relative and says the only blessing in
Ngati's death is that he is now "away from the devils.""I'm glad they
got guilty . That will be justice for my little man."* Maine and
Fa'asisila were charged with murder. They were found not guilty of
murder but guilty of manslaughter. They were also found guilty of a
separate charge of manslaughter for failing to provide medical care
which could have saved Ngati's life and for wilful ill-treatment of a
child. They will be sentenced next month

It is clear that our children are being let down by the legal system,
this is once again highlighted by the ridiculous sentences handed down
by
the High Court jury who found 32-year-old Maine Ngati and her partner
Teusila Faasisla not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter, after
the child was beaten to death. Each was sentenced to eight-and-a-half
years in jail for the manslaughter and will be up for parole in four
years. These monsters beat this defenceless 3 year old boy for days with
an aluminium baseball bat and oar. His entire body was covered in
bruises
and his blood was found in every inch of the house.

Not only is this case preposterous but it sets precedent for cases to
come. I believe each and every one of us should have a say and if we
stand
together on this we will make a difference. I refuse to stand by and let
these injustices go by again and again. This petition demands more
severe
punishments are to be handed out to those who abuse our children!

I do have the petion if any one wants to sign it.

[spudchucka]

It costs around 60K to keep a crim in a cell, per year.. damn most of us would not even earn that much.....

The latest figures are more like 92K.

[chanceyy]

Not only is this case preposterous but it sets precedent for cases to
come. I believe each and every one of us should have a say and if we
stand
together on this we will make a difference. I refuse to stand by and let
these injustices go by again and again. This petition demands more
severe
punishments are to be handed out to those who abuse our children!

I do have the petion if any one wants to sign it.

that is beyond horrific .. I will sign it .. can you set it up online so we can pass it to others .. plz

[Grahameeboy]

I still struggle with advocating the death penalty...sorry.

But these guys should have been put away for life. How can the Judge say 'Manslaughter'.........I always thought this was where there were mitigating circumstances but these guys had no mitigating circumstances so it was pre-meditated so 'murder'.....there is no way they could not have thought the kid may not die.........

The problem with the death penalty is that an innocent person's life may be extinguished. At least with jail they have a chance to fight their case as has been the case recently.

I watched a doco about a black guy in America on death row.....even the guards thought he was innocent....a week after he was excecuted the a witness, ignored by Police, prooved he was not guilty.

I don't believe in an eye for an eye as you know....however, life in prison for taking someones life is the way to go............they will wish they had died when they are in prison which is probably a better punishment that death..........

Agree crims enjoy the prison life..only have to watch those Worlds Hardest Prisons to see that......some of them could pay for their stay in prison...

[Paul in NZ]

that is beyond horrific .. I will sign it .. can you set it up online so we can pass it to others .. plz

I'll bloody sign it and lead the damn lynch mob to parliament as well...

Most motorcyclists have a great joy of life and love kids - the fundemental values of this country. Screw this crap - its got to stop, if caught - these people don't belong here, their citizenship should be revoked and they should be expelled from our borders if we don't have the guts to do it properly.

[janno]

I firmly believe that the incidence of child abuse and murder has not increased at all over the last couple of hundred years on a pro rata basis. It's just much harder to hide.

There is a portion of the human race that has always done this sort of thing and probably always will, so I fail to see what rehab will do to solve it. To me it seems to be a low socio economic problem, but of course that is my opinion from media reports. Someone working in the field like Disco Dan could probably put me right on this one.

I wonder what is different about our society from, say, Denmark, which to my knowledge doesn't have a big child abuse and murder problem? Is is purely a higer general education and income level?

My gut instinct is to lock the fuckers up (a la russian gulag style) and not let them out. To hell with rehab. And no entertainment. Let them be alone with their thoughts 24/7. I don't understand why prisoners should have a better life behind bars than out.

[Grahameeboy]

Sounds like as a Country we are still evolving

Interpreting 'Social wellbeing in New Zealand relative to the OECD'
Figure CO2 shows wellbeing in New Zealand relative to the OECD against 23 indicators. The circle represents the OECD median score for each indicator, and the spokes represent outcomes in New Zealand relative to the OECD median. The irregular shape outside of the median circle represents outcomes for the 75th percentile. Where a spoke falls below the circle, New Zealand is in the bottom half of the OECD. Where the spoke falls outside of the circle, outcomes in New Zealand are better than the OECD median. Where a spoke falls past the irregular shape, New Zealand makes it to the top quarter of the OECD.

SOME CAUTION IS REQUIRED WITH THIS DATA: International comparisons are frequently difficult to interpret because of differences between countries in methods used to collect, classify and record social data. We only show 23 of the 43 indicators used in The Social Report 2004 in the graph, because comparable international data is not available for each indicator.


New Zealand makes it into the top half of the OECD for roughly two thirds of the 23 indicators for which internationally comparable data is available.

New Zealand performs well in the area of civil and political rights. We consistently have one of the lowest levels of perceived corruption across the OECD, and are in the top half of the OECD both for the percentage of women in parliament, and for voter turnout.

New Zealand also performs strongly for both our relatively high employment rates and relatively low unemployment rates. New Zealand's performance has improved markedly in this area since the early 1990s.

New Zealand appears to sit around the middle of the OECD for our performance in the area of health. Life expectancy in New Zealand is similar to the median life expectancy in the OECD, though there is a relatively narrow range of outcomes across the OECD for this indicator. Our position declined over the 1970s and 1980s but improved in the 1990s. We perform well for the prevalence of cigarette smoking but have relatively high suicide rates. We are the sixth worst performer for obesity rates.

In the area of knowledge and skills, New Zealand is at or near the OECD median for adult literacy, for participation rates in tertiary education for the 20-29 year age group, and for the proportion of adults with tertiary qualifications. None of the measures used in this report enable us to look at the relative performance of children and young people. However results from the OECD's PISA study, which is designed to look at trends in student achievement across time in 32 countries, ranked New Zealand 15 year-olds near the top for their overall performance.93 However, compared to other countries, New Zealand has greater differences between the best and poorest achieving students - a pattern also reflected in other international studies of school students.

New Zealand sits below the middle ranked OECD country for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. We also do poorly for income inequality. However, we are slightly better than the OECD median in relation to the proportion of the population on low incomes.

We do not have enough comparable international data in the safety domain to make any strong conclusions. However, there is some evidence to suggest that New Zealand has relatively high rates of child maltreatment deaths, though there is some concern about the comparability of such data across countries.
Lastly, New Zealanders rate themselves highly in terms of life satisfaction and overall happiness. Out of 25 OECD countries, New Zealand has the fifth highest percentage of the population who are satisfied with their lives.

[Mom]

I am going with Disco Dans spin on this. I used to foster kids, and can assure you all that most of the really bad abuse never ever comes to the notice of the general public. In my experience this is a cross cultural problem, not just a maori or island issue.

One case for me really stands out in my memory, 3 little girls, 3 different fathers, although not tested, it can be assumed that they were close relatives of the mother. The grandmother of these girls had just had her similar aged twins taken from her due to neglect/abuse. I could not understand how any mother could treat her children the way these poor kids had been treated.

I had to take the girls for a supervised access visit with their mother, was not looking forward to meeting her as I was struggling with my own emotions around what I wanted to do to her! I was so shocked when I saw her, as I discovered that she should have been in care too!

The powers that be had been involved with this family for many years, all the help available was provided to them, but the bottom line was in testing to ascertain whether there was a chance of returning the kids to the family, this mother could not demonstrate how to construct a peanut butter sandwich, or explain how to cross the road safely!!

Generational abuse and neglect. So heart breaking! These girls were all permanently placed with new families, they had to be separated as collectively their needs were too great for one family to cope with.

I dont know the answers, but I am telling you that this sort of thing is never a once off, this is normal and acceptable in some sub-cultures in fine NZ.

[Dooly]

The winners no doubt will be the defence lawyers, who will probably be some of the best, at our cost.

The animals who did the crime will be looked after by all the support services and given the best of everything.

No doubt when it makes the telly, their court appearances, the family of the animals will be shown attacking the photographers, swearing at them etc etc etc etc, as we've seen it all before.

The usual PC arguments will be presented about their poor lifestyles being a reflection of modern society and how its not really their fault blah blah blah.

Weak sentencing will occurr.

Next horrific high profile kid killing case please........repeat again, again, again...

Death is the only answer to these vermin, the worst death the better, and preferably the victim's family/s offered the chance to deliver the punishment of their choice.
Unless of course the family is the one who did the crime!
Then I'll do it!

[Mrs Busa Pete]

that is beyond horrific .. I will sign it .. can you set it up online so we can pass it to others .. plz

I don't know how to do that can someone tell.
Thanks Wendy

[SlashWylde]

What do you do with child abusers?

What you do with child abusers who are guilty of committing a crime is really only a small part of the problem. It appeases the communities need to see justice done and punishment metered out, but it does nothing to change the culture of the society we live in, and it certainly won't act as a disincentive to the sorts of people who commit these crimes.

The most that can be done is to permanently remove them from society at the lowest cost to the taxpayer. The death penalty, whilst attractive and quick, is not a realistic solution as there will always be innocent people falsely convicted. A better system is for the guilty to be locked away on a prison farm somewhere where the inmates have to work to grow their own food, build their own shelter and fashion their own textiles.

These people are often of very limited intelligence. Rational thought and the consequences of their actions don't enter into their minds, so the notion of justice and penalties for their actions won't stop them or even slow them down. Mind altering substances also often play a part in the abuse.

Our society is still very young - less than 200 years old. We have had to grow up very quickly from a wild frontier mentality of the first settlers through huge technological and social changes. There are still many places in NZ where people think they can do as they please and that the law dosen't apply to them.

In many ways NZ is like an out of control teenager. Wild, angry, addicted to failure and substance abuse, but without really knowing why or attempting to find out why and do something about it. This attitude is perpetuated by a group of people who are too stupid and lazy to take responsibility for their own lives and those they foolishly bring into this world. Many of these people abuse a beneficiary system which is lax enough to be prone to abuse.

Cases like Nia are the symptom. Until the root causes of this cycle of behaviour are addressed, and the cycle broken, successive generations of children will continue to be born to 'parents' who don't want them but will abuse them, neglect them and effectively raise them to be like themselves, ready to breed a new crop of failure into this world.

[BarBender]

Part of my job is 'supervising' child sex offenders and rehabilitating them back into the community. They are prescribed medication to lower their lebido, but that still does not stop a simple Farmers mail flyer 'setting them off'. The system is very prehistoric and needs a lot of work. What you all saw on the news... tip of the ice berg, let me assure you. I could tell you stories about how one client used to 'have his way' with dead domestic cats... well they wernt dead when he got them... and others that actually offended while under professional care - we are talking 2:1 staffing and the client still managed to offend... sexually a young girl in a public toilet block.
There is a hell of a lot more to it that what you all saw on the news... its going on right now. Every day.

I am going with Disco Dans spin on this. I used to foster kids, and can assure you all that most of the really bad abuse never ever comes to the notice of the general public. In my experience this is a cross cultural problem, not just a maori or island issue.
Generational abuse and neglect. So heart breaking!
I dont know the answers, but I am telling you that this sort of thing is never a once off, this is normal and acceptable in some sub-cultures in fine NZ.

I dont know the answers either.

But I do know that I admire you both - and others out there -for their work and contribution made to help the few move the ambulance to the top of the cliff. Its tough...emotionally draining and the majority of the time you feel like you're on your own.
You give - they (because of their circumstances) take.

My post is in relation to sexual offenders, so a slightly different slant on the Nia case. But I'd suggest there are some similarities. I sat on the board of a non-for profit for 5 years that dealt specifically with the rehabilitation of sex offenders. It was an emotionally conflicting yet rewarding time in my life. It was difficult from a governance perspective because the organisation operated in a space where public and media perception rules and where that public perception invariably influences legislation and reinforces that perception over again. Emotionally - it wasn't a Starship or a Cancer Society where the heart strings start playing when the branding hits you on TV.

What was rewarding about the organisation was that each of the 30 staff was committed to the cause that 100 percent rehabilitation was a very real and proven outcome. Recidivism rates dropped by to almost 90 percent through specialist therapy which included families and monitored follow up.
There was never any problem filling the programmes with clients. It even got to the stage where separate programmes had to be set up in Whangarei and Hamilton to help clients identified in the far North and central North Island

What very few people realise is 85 percent of the clients who attended these programmes were children and teenages. Children as young as 4 through to kids 18 years who had been identified as sexual offenders. Tip of the iceberg indeed.
The success rates of adult programmes were dependent largely on strong and positive support post programme. But as Dan has pointed out its difficult to do with limited resourcing and when the local police and school find out you are...
I dont condone what offenders or abusers do. Like some of you - I've seen little people with their souls ripped out of them. But I would like to show you a little more of what’s under the waterline and say that not every offender needs to get shot.
I have seen too many offenders get a second chance and come through blazing and live a deserved life - Especially kids and teenages who are too young and who don’t know any more that what they know to realise what they do and effect on others.

Maybe part of the solution in dealing with the issue of abuse needs to start with our young people...

[Mrs Busa Pete]

The most that can be done is to permanently remove them from society at the lowest cost to the taxpayer. The death penalty, whilst attractive and quick, is not a realistic solution as there will always be innocent people falsely convicted. A better system is for the guilty to be locked away on a prison farm somewhere where the inmates have to work to grow their own food, build their own shelter and fashion their own textiles.

These people are often of very limited intelligence. Rational thought and the consequences of their actions don't enter into their minds, so the notion of justice and penalties for their actions won't stop them or even slow them down. Mind altering substances also often play a part in the abuse.

Could not agree more with this post.

[yungatart]

Rest in peace little one, because you certainly didn't live that way.

If you want to help, then keep a friendly eye on your neighbours kids, your neices and nephews, your friends kids. Step in when it is needed!
Our babies need protecting from scum like this.
Make sure you stand up and are counted!

[Mom]

What very few people realise is 85 percent of the clients who attended these programmes were children and teenages. Children as young as 4 through to kids 18 years who had been identified as sexual offenders. Tip of the iceberg indeed.

Yes and that would have to be one of the hardest things I had to learn to accept, when I had a family with me for 15months. 3 beautiful kids, whose mother had tried to gas them in her car, ages 10, 8 & 7. The eldest boy played the you touch this or I will do this to you, oh and dont tell your mother else I will do THIS to you. Hardest thing I ever did was not to kill him when my daughter told me. He cried when he left my home, he was a sweet little boy who did not have the benefit of a "normal" (whatever that is) childhood.

I gave away caregiving when I became increasingly frustrated and angry with a system that did not have the resources to deal with problems identified in the children I cared for.