A 33-year-old woman who tried to control a difficult foster child by terror and accidentally set fire to the 10-year-old boy in Whitianga last year was sentenced to four months' imprisonment yesterday.
Justice Robert Fisher said in the High Court at Auckland that the term was short but if Josephine Auai Warren had intended to burn the boy she would have undoubtedly gone to prison for several years.
"A clear signal has to be sent to others to warn them that abusing children will nearly always result in imprisonment."
As Justice Fisher sentenced Warren on one charge of causing grievous bodily harm and two of assault, a handful of people in the back of the court screamed abuse at him and the prisoner.
"Burn in hell, you filthy bitch," said one.
By the end of yesterday details of the sentencing had been referred to the Solicitor-General's office for consideration of an appeal by the Crown.
During the sentencing, crown prosecutor Brian Dickey suggested a term of between three to five years and, had the lighting been deliberate, five years or more.
Warren had pleaded guilty to the offences which occurred while the boy was in her foster care in Whitianga at the end of October last year.
The court heard that the boy had behavioural difficulties. In the few days before the assaults Warren, who had been sexually abused as a foster child, was traumatised after learning painful facts about her own dysfunctional family, two of her own children returned home and she accepted an urgent request from state social workers to look after another younger child.
Justice Fisher said the 10-year-old's behaviour deteriorated markedly. "He caused trouble with the other children in the home, which sorely tried your patience. Something snapped," he told Warren.
Paddy O'Driscoll, acting for Warren, said the boy had been in a number of foster placements but people were unable to cope.
Child, Youth and Family Services decided he needed unflappable and consistent caregivers. Other institutions were unfortunately full, Mr O'Driscoll said.
The combination of events leading to the assaults amounted to a non-negotiable wave for Warren.
"When non-negotiable waves strike a boat it goes under. Mariners say it founders. That is my submission. What happened to Mrs Warren was she foundered."
Justice Fisher said that over two years Warren had provided a foster home which was used by Child, Youth and Family as well as another agency and developed an excellent record, particularly with difficult children.
She was warned that the boy had behavioural difficulties and it was accepted that if he threw a tantrum he could be restrained. He was in the household for six weeks, a period during which Warren was given "no time out," the judge said.
Warren was shocked to learn of "intensely painful things about her dysfunctional family"when she was given her personal file by Child, Youth and Family within three days of the assaults.
After something snapped, she tried to control the boy through fear. She threatened to chop his head off with an axe, swung a baseball bat at him and tied his hands, smeared him with fake blood and threatened to put a dead chicken around his neck and tie him to a tree.
Justice Fisher said something went terribly wrong when Warren took the boy's skivvy, poured petrol over it and then, to give him a fright, attempted to flick the lighter in front of him. The fumes ignited and he was engulfed in flames.
The boy still had scarring on his face, neck and chin but with treatment was expected to emerge without major physical or mental harm.
Justice Fisher said aggravating features of the case included an abuse of trust by Warren, the deliberate cruelty she subjected the boy to and the pain and suffering he experienced.
But to her credit she had pleaded guilty and there was no deliberate act of violence "in the usual sense." Her stress levels exceeded her endurance.
Justice Fisher sentenced Warren to four months' imprisonment, with leave to apply for home detention, and supervision for a year with a condition that she have psychiatric counselling.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from New Zealand
Anzac Day: Napier veteran Tom Husband recounts being called up for World War II
'Everything the bomb touched had died and there was hardly anything left standing.'