A Whangarei mother who left her four scared young children home alone has been sentenced to two years' jail.
Maraea Manu Gage, 24, failed to appear for sentencing in the Whangarei District Court on Friday morning, prompting Judge Duncan Harvey to issue a warrant for her arrest. However, Gage's mother brought her to court and she was sentenced mid-afternoon for four charges of ill treatment/neglect of a child under 18.
The charges carry a maximum jail term of 10 years.
Police picked up the four children, including girls aged 8 months and 6, from their Raumanga home after going there on an unrelated matter on May 10.
The 6-year-old had cradled her younger sister while watching a computer on which music played, and there was no readily available food or heating in the dark, dirty house, lit only by the computer screen's glow.
Gage had left her children a bottle of milky tea, thick with sugar and a tea bag.
She had also left them with a toilet blocked with faeces, a bath full of dirty clothes, and orders to not open the door to anyone. Her children were hungry and cold - the 8-month-old was filthy and in desperate need of a nappy change - and there was no food was in the refrigerator.
Police found sausages in the freezer and rummaged up a loaf of bread and made toast for the children. Dirty blankets and empty bourbon and cola cans littered the floor. Two single beds had no linen.
The children refused to open the door for police. One yelled "who is it?" before screaming for their mother.
Police entered through an unlocked back door. A neighbour helped tend and feed the children and change the 8-month-old after no baby-care products or baby food could be found.
Gage first appeared on May 14 and was released on bail.
On June 10, she pleaded guilty and was again released on bail to re-appear for sentencing on August 1 but failed to turn up.
A warrant was issued by Judge Harvey, who also ordered that on her arrest, she shouldn't be granted bail except by a District Court judge.
She was arrested on a warrant and granted bail by two Justices of the Peace in the Auckland District Court despite Judge Harvey's instructions to the contrary.