Twins case revives brother's pain over little Christina

Earl Opetaia says the Kahui twins' deaths brought back memories of his sister Christina's killing 40 years ago. Picture / Martin Sykes

The death of the Kahui twins has brought back painful memories for the brother of a toddler killed by her caregivers and the detective who investigated the crime.

The year was 1966 and Christina Barbara Opetaia and her older brother Earl were placed in the care of friends - Ada and Takaterangi (George) Tanoa - while their parents tried to sort through relationship difficulties.

It proved to be a fatal decision and within months Christina was dead after suffering ongoing neglect, abuse and beatings.

Earl Opetaia, now 45 and working with at-risk youth in Kelston as a boxing trainer, said the twins' death brought back "flashes and images from the past" when he and his sister had stayed at the Freemans Bay home.

"I remember being in that house and there were parties that went on for a week without end. We would be left in the room and they would just party - and I mean non-stop."

Mr Opetaia said he and Christina were "thrown a loaf of bread" and given a bottle of milk each day. Although he was 4 he had to share the same cot as his baby sister, who often went for days without having her nappy changed.

He said his sister could barely walk when the abuse began.

"I can remember her being hit with a burning stick when they were trying to make her walk - they would give her a bloody good hiding," he said.

Lin Sinton, a 65-year-old security consultant who now lives in Sydney, was part of an Auckland CIB team which investigated Christina's death.

He said although he had been involved in many cases, this one came to mind when he heard of the Kahui twins. "What stuck in my mind was that my older daughter was the same age as this child that had been killed."

A pathologist said Christina was covered in scars, burns, bruising and ulcers and concluded she died from concussion and brain haemorrhage.

The Auckland Supreme Court heard how the baby had also been punched in the face and stomach.

Mr Sinton said the investigation was hampered by the lack of co-operation from the co-accused and their extended family, something he sees happening again in the case of the Kahui twins. "That's what got up my nose, it just rang a bell and it was exactly the same attitude of the extended family.

"Fortunately we had enough evidence so we could charge them, but the attitude was exactly the same and they were not interested in helping."

Ada and George Tanoa were sentenced to six months in prison in 1967. An older brother to George, Beau Tanoa, who lives in Christchurch, said he had no idea his brother had even gone to prison. Nor did he have any idea of the crime he had committed at that time.

"I spoke to him years later but that never came up in the conversation. I knew nothing of him going to prison - that was his life, not mine," he said.

Beau Tanoa said his brother died in 1991. Mrs Tanoa died in the 1970s.

Mr Opetaia, who is Maori and Samoan, questioned the tactics the Kahui family had adopted.

"What law are these people following here? Is it because they are Maori?" he said. "They don't have to say anything and it's OK?

"The culprit who did this does not deserve to be protected - the family should give the person up."


Lin Sinton's letter

The tragic case of the dead baby twins takes me back more than 40 years to a manslaughter case I was involved in.

The child was a 3-year-old girl, born to an unmarried mother who did not want her and who had her "adopted" by relatives who did not want her either. The step-parents would join their 5-year-old son in beating her with a laundry stick, and the stepfather would often lift her by her long black hair and kick her with his pointed shoes.

When she died from numerous beatings, elder members of the extended family wrung their hands and expressed sorrow, though none had lifted a finger to protect the child even though the ill treatment was obvious.

I have never forgotten the child, who, had she lived, would now have been in her early forties. I have also never forgotten or forgiven the extended family and their culture that allowed this crime to occur.

Has anything changed in 40 years?