Court adds three years for child's killing

The Hamilton mother and her lesbian lover jailed for the death of 6-year-old Mereana Edmonds have been given longer sentences to reflect the prolonged cruelty and neglect the little girl suffered.

The Court of Appeal in Wellington yesterday released its reserved decision, saying the sentencing judge "took a much too lenient view of the offending."

In October, the Crown appealed against the original sentences, which had resulted in Belinda Edmonds, the child's mother, being sentenced to jail for five years for manslaughter and her partner, Dorothy Tipene, to 18 months for cruelty to a child.

Three years have now been added to Edmonds' jail term and nine months to Tipene's.

Mereana Edmonds lived with her mother for only five months, moving to Hamilton from Hawkes Bay where she had been brought up by her nanny. But in those five months she was repeatedly bashed, punched, slapped and kicked.

As punishment for wetting her bed, she would be locked in a wash-house, or picked up by her hair and slung into an outside shed to spend the night.

Mereana was battered so much that she lost her balance and was unable to walk without banging into furniture or walls.

Mereana's death was the result of prolonged blows to the head - one so hard her brain rebounded off the front of her skull.

She died in her mother's house in May last year.

During the Court of Appeal hearing, crown counsel John Pike said the fact that Mereana had been conceived by rape should not have been a factor in the original sentencing.

"The child of rape is less protected in criminal law against death at the hands of its mother? That can't be right," he said.

Usually the names of rape victims are suppressed, but at Edmonds' sentencing the judge ruled that her name could be used because a charge of rape had never been laid.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal said there could be no question "but that the sentences imposed in this case must reflect society's denunciation of prolonged cruelty and neglect.

"While each offender can herself be described as a victim of past abuse, society cannot countenance condoning what was done and allowed to be done.

"The duration of the cruelty inflicted on this poor young victim, the nature of the injuries and the neglect by the child's mother and caregiver are of the most serious degree."

The Court of Appeal's decision has placed Edmonds' sentence in the middle bracket of an area where the sentences vary.

At the upper end of the scale, Edward Smith and Tania Witika each received 16 years' jail for the manslaughter of Delcelia Witika, aged 2.

Last year, Benny Haerewa was sentenced to 12 years' jail for manslaughter after using a brass tack-hammer, a steel vacuum-cleaner pipe and a jug cord to beat Hawkes Bay 4-year-old James Whakaruru to death.

Also last year, Mathew Iorangi, of Tokoroa, began a 4 1/2-year sentence for the manslaughter of 17-month-old Pirimai Simmonds.

The tot died after being thrown across the room into a wall for grizzling during a televised rugby match.

In 1996, Damion Peterson, of Dargaville, was jailed for five years for the manslaughter of his 10-month-old daughter, Jillayne, who died after being punched in the stomach.

Most recently, Rose Matiu was jailed for seven years for the manslaughter of her 3-year-old son, Tangaroa. Her partner, Genesis Mahanga, is serving a life sentence for the little boy's murder.

Justice Minister Phil Goff says mitigating circumstances of each case can make a difference to the sentence handed down, but "that's not to say inconsistencies haven't occurred."

A fundamental principle in sentencing was to ensure people who committed similar crimes were penalised in the same way.

Mr Goff said a sentencing review by the Ministry of Justice, to be completed soon, should address inconsistencies.