Sahara Baker-Koro: The Inside Story

Sahara Baker-Koro's family came to Napier to escape their past. But as Catherine Masters reports, instead of a new beginning it was a brutal, tragic end for the little girl.

The dead child's name is Sahara Jayde Baker-Koro. She was nearly 6. She came to Napier from Wanganui with her family for a better life; a bright and inquisitive child with loads of friends at school.

Instead of a better life, her life ended. Just days before Christmas in 2010, Kerry Charles Ratana - her mother's younger boyfriend and Sahara's stepfather - killed the girl in a battered old house in a Napier suburb while her mother was at work. Late yesterday afternoon, a jury also found he sexually violated her.

This jury already knew Ratana was the one who had killed her - he had admitted manslaughter in July last year - but he stuck to his denial he ever touched her sexually.

He could not explain the bruising, though, which experts said was "fresh". Aside from two siblings, no others were in the house. The death was an accident, he told police. He had been trying to shut Sahara up because she had been whining but she was not supposed to die.

Though Sahara was killed in Napier, the players emerge from the lower socio suburbs of Wanganui, suburbs with their social ills and history of gang problems.

Sahara's mother, Chantally Baker, grew up there and has a history with violent men.

Baker was described to us as a loving mum - but through her daughter's death it was found out that she had been abusive towards Sahara.

Baker was separated from Sahara's father, Willis Koro, who came out of jail only a few days before the child died, and when Ratana lived in Wanganui it seems he was moving with a bad crowd and was heading towards a life Baker did not want any more. So she moved Sahara and her older sister Taylah from Wanganui to Napier and set up home in an old Baker family house in Riverbend Rd, keen to start a new life.

She was already pregnant, however, to Ratana and gave birth to a boy called Rome who was 2 by the time Sahara was killed.

Ratana was never really out of the picture, though, because by September 2010 he was living in Napier with Baker.

The pair were very much together then because when Ratana had to go to court back in Wanganui, Baker went with him and pleaded with him to change his ways.

Ratana was appearing on a charge of disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence and Judge John Clapham of the Wanganui District Court told Baker to "tell him what you need". So Baker told Ratana that Wanganui was no good for him and that he needed to get away from the people he knew there.

She was crying as she told him she loved him and that she knew he could do it, and Ratana, also in tears, said, "Yeah, I'll do it."

Judge Clapham sealed the deal by letting Ratana go free, saying, "I want you to write to me in 12 months and tell me how wonderful your life is."

Good intentions, but the letter won't be written.

Three months later, Ratana had killed Baker's daughter.

When I visited the house in Riverbend Rd early last year it was for sale for $89,000, the worst house in the street. It was tattered and empty, stripped of all furniture and possessions.

The house had been an eyesore for a long time, said a neighbour who had lived next door for 10 years.

"The great granddad was living there then, he was nice."

Baker family members took turns living there, she said, and over the years there were sometimes rowdy parties and comings and goings.

Chantally Baker's tenure had been the quietest and she described her as a friendly, nice woman who always waved.

When we were there the paint was peeling outside the house and the window frames were rotten.

Sahara and Taylah's room had a hole in the glass and when you peered in you could see little handprints on the wall.

They were very close, the two girls, people said. Great little friends and always together.

At Onekawa School, where Sahara had just finished her first year, teachers said the girls were always well groomed and came to school with good, healthy lunches.

They always did their homework. Baker would pick them up from school every day and cheer them on at the cross-country.

And Sahara showed no signs of unhappiness, the teachers said. She was a confident child in class who loved to sing at the top of her voice and had a cheeky smile. She was the type of kid who would put her hand up to go to the toilet but get distracted on the way back and climb a tree. There were never any bruises or other signs of abuse and staff had no idea life at home was not good.

But apparently it wasn't, at least not always, because during the investigation into Sahara's death, her mum ended up being charged with assaulting her.

In October last year, Chantally Baker appeared back at Wanganui District Court, only this time she was in the dock.

According to the police summary of facts, a female who had been living in the Riverbend Rd house until shortly before Sahara's death had told how she had seen Baker physically and emotionally abuse the girl.

She saw Baker pick up Sahara, call her names and hit her. She heard kicking noises followed by Sahara saying "don't kick".

Baker went on to admit assaulting Sahara on numerous occasions, including grabbing her arm and throwing her to the floor, slapping her, kicking her and pinching her ears or pulling her hair when the child wouldn't listen to her. The summary said: "In explanation the defendant said that she was not perfect and the reason why she treated Sahara this way and was so hard on her was that she didn't want Sahara to have a bad life or go to jail. "She said that she wanted Sahara to be better than her and thought that being hard on her children would help them."

The extended family returned to the Riverbend Rd house one afternoon soon after Sahara's death, and a blessing was performed.

Onekawa School principal Wayne Keats told how surprised he was to hear about Baker being accused of abusing Sahara, given there was no indication at school she was being treated that way.

But abuse can be well-hidden.

"That's well known, isn't it, that abuse is out there and we here at the school are very vigilant in looking out for it but sometimes it just goes under the radar, you don't see it. It's a message for everyone."

As for Ratana, perhaps an anonymous online comment after he was named as the man arrested for killing Sahara captures something of the path he was on in Wanganui.

"Rapiest mutt f*** you kerry you f****n c*** bet it felt good when I smashed your face in an watched your blood drip down your face - wish I had of slit you throat instead."

An old school friend told how Ratana had changed over the years.

The friend, who did not want to be named, said he also knew Chantally Baker and Willis Koro and members of the wider whanau, as well as the Ratana family.

They were certainly not all bad, he said. Ratana's parents were good, decent people and shouldn't be blamed for their son, who made his own choices.

Everyone in Wanganui was connected by the river, "all our families are from maraes along the river and all related along the bloodline there".

When they were all younger, Ratana had aspirations like the rest of the school friends - things like being a star league player or a doctor.

But there was pressure from a young age to go another way, such as join a gang. The friend said he personally turned away from that but Ratana was too weak to turn away, though he doesn't know if he ever joined a gang.

The friend would see Ratana at pubs where he would be wearing Mongrel Mob colours - a bit of red around the wrist or in the back of his pocket, though again, he didn't know if he belonged to the gang.

He said Ratana was a little odd back at school, and not too bright. "I mean, most of us boys at school, like we kind of knew what he was going to be like. Oh, you know, have some kind of deviant behaviour."

"I would have thought more gang-related, like get into a massive fight and stab somebody or something like that."

But he never imagined he would kill a child.

NZ Herald