Movies in bed - what a treat

Wilrich Coetzee with one of the 23 seized DVD players given to the Starship Foundation. Photo / Kenny Rodger

They were destined for a life of crime - now DVD players used to make pirate movies will brighten the days of sick children.

The Starship hospital has been given 23 DVD players after a raid on a dodgy internet cafe left them in the hands of the New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft.

Now they are helping patients like 11-year-old Wilrich Coetzee to while away long hours stuck in bed.

Starship Foundation chief executive Andrew Young predicts the players will be in huge demand.

Bored and scratchy youngsters will have plenty of choice over what to watch because movie distributors have chipped in 50 DVDs to go with the devices.

Mr Young says the gift arrived just in the nick of time - a DVD player in the neonatal intensive care unit broke down last week.

He says that as well as helping out in the wards, a few of the players will be lent to "very special patients" recovering at home.