Agency admits failures in brutal child killings

By JAMES GARDINER

They were three of New Zealand's most brutal killings with three things in common.

All the victims were children, all the killers were men supposed to have taken on the role of a father and state social workers had been involved in each child's case.

Three-year-old Huntly boy Tamati Pokaia was beaten to death by his foster father, Michael Waterhouse, in April last year. Yesterday Waterhouse was jailed for 10 years for killing Tamati.

Hamilton 12-year-old Kelly Gush was kicked to death by her mother's partner, Darran Mackness, in August last year. Mackness was found guilty of murder in March.

Two months ago it was Featherston 6-year-old Coral-Ellen Burrows, punched almost to death by her stepfather Steven Williams, who finished her off by hitting her over the head with a tree branch. Williams pleaded guilty to murder last week.

In each case the children were being punished for doing something any child might do.

Tamati enraged Waterhouse by bringing a bag of popcorn home from kindergarten; Kelly vomited up her dinner; Coral-Ellen "got cheeky" to Williams.

In each case the Child, Youth and Family Department social workers had not only had dealings with the children, they were also familiar with the men who ended up killing them.

Yesterday it admitted mistakes were made in the Kelly Gush and Tamati Pokaia cases.

The themes were almost identical:

"The department did not meet its standard of visiting children in care every two months," the Tamati review found.

And in Kelly's case: "The department did not meet its own standards in some aspects of its involvement with Kelly and her family."

Today it will release the findings of its review of its handling of Coral-Ellen Burrows. It has already admitted - after initially denying it - that its staff received but ignored a phone call from her father, Ron Burrows, warning that something was wrong.

Opposition politicians attacked the Government for failing to act quickly enough to put things right at the troubled department, which has struggled with understaffing, high workloads, low morale and poor organisation.

"There have already been too many apologies from CYF this year," said National welfare spokeswoman Katherine Rich. "How many more children will die before Labour accepts that CYF needs more than just money and carefully crafted spin?"

Act's Muriel Newman said it was time for CYF Minister Ruth Dyson to accept the blame for her department's failings. She called the "hand-wringing" reports a whitewash. No one had been held directly responsible.

Ms Dyson elected not to defend herself or her department last night, saying she would comment today on all three reports after the Coral-Ellen Burrows report is made public. That had been delayed a day at the request of Mr Burrows, who said he wanted time to read it.

Public Service Association national secretary Richard Wagstaff said the department had been struggling to cope for some time.

It urgently needed to spend the extra funding announced by the Government earlier this year to recruit more staff and put better systems in place.