I was scanning the media on Saturday when I came across two stories involving infanticide. The first report involved a horrific reign of abuse inflicted by William James Sio upon his five-year-old son Ferro-James, resulting in his death. At the time they resided in a motel along Rotorua’s notorious Feral Street.
The second report concerned the death of a three-month-old baby, Thalia Dean, whose death resulted from several punches to the head with a closed fist administered by her father, Jerome Dean. The details of both events were horrific. Not a word from any politician in spite of a child being brutally killed, on average, every five weeks.
Several years ago I was foreman on a jury that presided over a case involving a mother charged with the murder of her three-year-old son. The case lasted six weeks. What sickened me was not just the final fatal act of slamming the child’s head into a wall because he was annoying her whilst she was playing online poker, but the years of unreported abuse the child suffered prior to his murder.
Broken bones, cigarette burns and numerous other horrendous atrocities were inflicted. Not once was any of this torture reported to a medical or any other established authority. Nor did the extensive whanau, who partied regularly at their home, make any attempt to intervene. In fact, we spent days listening to their evidence exalting what a wonderful mother she was. She ended up in the slammer for a very long time.
It is reported that there are 14,000 substantiated findings of child abuse each year, police respond to a family violence call every seven minutes, and that child abuse costs New Zealand about $2 billion every year. These statistics are a disgrace and a damning indictment on our politicians’ priorities. The pathetic excuses, the restructuring of government authorities, the blame game: colonisation and poverty. All convenient vindications trotted out to cover the butts of those who are incapable and/or unwilling to face the truth.
Many of these parents are the targets of gang-related drug trade. Their brains are fried beyond cognition and perception as their children become the targets of their frustrations. What astounds me is that there are politicians of the left who would rather befriend these gangs, the peddlers of this misery.
As another child is killed every five weeks, these politicians can now claim to be attached only to the oppression but never the solution. What chance do these children have when such ignorance festers amongst those who claim to have the answers? None.
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