The jury was shown a two-hour police interview with the accused in which she claimed the complainant was a difficult boy.
Some of the charges are representative.
Three of them relate to a specific incident said to have taken place at Hirini’s mother’s house on July 3, 2012 when the boy was 17.
The Crown says it was that incident that finally brought about four years of abuse to police attention.
The boy fledThe boy fled after Hirini allegedly lacerated his finger with a butcher’s knife, scraped the inside of his mouth with a cutlery fork and struck him around the head with a knife steel, knocking out some of his top teeth — in the same way she was alleged to have earlier knocked out some of his bottom teeth.
The two young women, who each gave evidence yesterday, were placed by CYF in Hirini’s household at separate times but each was there when the complainant had already been resident for about a year or more. They were both the same age as the complainant.
Neither of the women were still in Hirini’s care at the time of the July 3, 2012 incident.
Their evidence went towards supporting other charges.
Neither had ever witnessed Hirini using a knife steel to hit the complainant, who claimed she did so as many as 200 times while he was in her care.
Each of the women said they noticed from the start of their placements that the complainant was abused and treated unfairly. He was made to do a neverending array of household chores and would do so quickly and compliantly without any objection.
They were treated relatively well and not subject to any abuse, although one said she was miserable in the home due to what the boy was suffering.
Asked by the prosecution if she ever thought she should tell someone, the first woman, aged 14 at the time of her placement, said, “I wanted to, I really did, but I was just scared that I’d get the same treatment and I didn’t want that”.
She told her “nan” who thought the situation was unfair and rang the accused but it was fruitless.
“Rose told me, ‘don’t go telling anyone what goes around in this house’ and I said OK and didn’t say anything after that.”
Asked if the complainant ever spoke to her about the abuse, she said, “he wanted to kill them but it was just because of the way he was treated. He wouldn’t have done it, he is a good boy”.
“He never made any comment like that in their presence. He never rebelled against any instruction or requirement.”
Threw the phone at himThe young woman told the court about an incident in which the accused repeatedly threw her phone for fun at the boy’s head while they were watching TV.
She also spoke about another incident in which he was made to wring out washing into a bucket about 8pm one cold winter night when the washing machine broke.
He got drops of water on the carpet, for which he was made to wear a wet T-shirt and stand out in the cold for 45 minutes. He then had to hang out the washing and sleep without any bedding in the wet T-shirt.
Asked if she thought the complainant was difficult, she said, “no, he was just a bit slow”.
The other woman, who was 15 when placed in the house, wept throughout her evidence and told the jury she did not want to be there.
“I’m just here because of (the complainant) and what happened to him.”
Asked if she felt safe in the house, the second woman said, “yes, only because it wasn’t happening to me, it was happening to (the complainant)”.
She said she also felt safe because she was related to them (the accused and her husband who has since died).
The jury was shown a two-hour police interview that the accused agreed to undertake and without legal representation.
In it the accused said the complainant had been placed in her care as he had specific problems and could not be placed around other very young children.
He was a difficult, troubled child, frequently in trouble at school. He stole a lot — mainly food and money, she claimed.
He had previously accused her of stabbing him and was told off by police for wasting everyone’s time. She was hesitant to take him back after that but did so because he cried and he had nowhere else to go.
He started running away when her partner died at the end of 2011.
The trial being heard by Judge Tony Adeane, is expected to end on Friday.
Proceeding
