And then there’s Malachi Subecz. The 5-year-old Bay of Plenty boy also suffered unbearable violence in the months before the woman who was supposed to care for him, Michaela Barriball, killed him.
There are many other recognisable names on the list of shame, including Richard Royal Uddin, Moko Rangitoheriri, Coral-Ellen Burrows, Delcelia Witika and Chris and Cru Kahui.
There are countless others and a 2016 NZ Herald article on the issue, which includes a roll of dishonour, makes for heartbreaking reading.
The issue of children dying at the hands of people who are supposed to take care of them was thrust back into the spotlight last week with coverage of a coroner’s report into the death of C.J. White.
C.J. was just 10 months old when his meth-addicted father, David Grant Sinclair, murdered him – a tragedy a coroner says could have been prevented if police and Oranga Tamariki had acted on desperate warnings from his terrified family.
In a damning finding, Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale says a “suite” of agency failures exposed systemic shortcomings, with authorities dismissing repeated pleas and an “overwhelming fear” the baby was in danger.
C.J. died on July 10, 2019. The court heard he had “very severe brain and skull injuries”.
Sinclair was sentenced to life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
How can these crimes happen in our country?
These types of horrendous killings can spark calls for changes, outcries of anger, investigations, reports, reviews and plenty of handwringing.
But nothing changes.
It is reported that, on average, one child dies every five weeks at the hands of those who have responsibility for their care. Most of these children are under the age of 5.
And there we have it – the core of the rotten apple.
The people often carrying out these savage attacks on defenceless children are supposed to be the ones who love, nurture, raise and support them.
They are supposed to protect them.
There can be contributing factors such as drugs, poverty and inter-generational violence.
But there can be no excuses. These horrific acts are unforgivable.
It’s likely the list of shame will keep growing.
There’s no magic solution, but can the Government and the agencies involved, and New Zealand as a whole, do more?
Dr Patrick Kelly, the on-call Starship paediatrician when Malachi Subecz was admitted,told the inquest into Malachi’s death in July this year that police and Oranga Tamariki routinely rejected child abuse evidence without getting input from health professionals.
In some of these cases, the children later reappeared with fatal injuries.
This seems inexplicable and must change.
Oranga Tamariki also came under intense fire for its poor handling of Malachi’s care, sparking a major inquiry and recommendations.
The agency apologised and acknowledged that there was more work to do. It said the child protection system was complicated and changes needed to be carefully thought out if they were to have a lasting impact.
The scale of the agency’s job is indeed daunting. Reports of concern rose 35% in the year to March, to 95,000.
The NZ Herald has reported that resourcing was a key theme in Malachi’s case. Staff spoke of “unbearable” workloads and “praying” that the phone would not ring on after-hours shifts.
That’s not good enough. The Government needs to pump more money into Oranga Tamariki, so it has the resources to do better and to handle such a major workload.
People who work with children need to be better trained to spot the signs and alert authorities.
People such as family and neighbours also need to speak up if they have any suspicions or if anything seems wrong.
The sentences handed down in these cases need reviewing, with a view to increasing them.
These actions are just a few, and there will be others.
New Zealand can be better than all of this. We need to do better.
