Editorial: A story terrible to write

I helped write a story for yesterday's front page that had me on the verge of tears.

A Rotorua caregiver has this week admitted charges of assaulting a child after prolonged abuse.

Rosemary Anne Adams, 55, was granted care of a toddler but spent more than two years ill-treating him.

Adams, among other things, force-fed the child, left him on the toilet for periods of up to five hours and restricted his water intake to dangerous levels, purely as a measure to stop him wetting his pants.

She instructed his daycare to give him a maximum of 150 millilitres of water a day - well below the recommended one litre or 1.4 litres to ensure that the body functions properly.

Adams also left him on the toilet as a way of stopping him from wetting his pants, but he was left there so long, he would often fall asleep or fall off.

She would slap and smack the child during meal times and encourage others to hold his arms and legs while she forced food into his mouth - smacking him until he swallowed it.

It's the sort of abuse that makes all decent human beings angry as well as sad.

Those same emotions were felt when we heard about abuse suffered by Rotorua 3-year-old Nia Glassie.

Thankfully in this latest case, the toddler wasn't physically hurt to an extent that he required medical treatment, but any long-term mental impacts are yet to be known.

We had a lengthy discussion among editorial management about whether this story should run on the front page. It's not the sort of news we want to see in Rotorua but it's also not the sort of news we should hide.

What Adams has done is so incredibly wrong. Children shouldn't be treated like that, and for that reason her disgrace was put on the front page.

The story was published on the same day as sweeping changes were announced by the Government in an effort to stop child abuse.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and her legislation changes have their critics but what all parties agree on is the need for child welfare to be paramount.