Jesus weeps for the children
Stuff reports:
An Auckland mother found guilty of horrific child abuse went to jail saying she is “not really a bad mother”.
The woman, 31, who has name suppression, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison with a non-parole period of five years when she appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday.
The 10-year-old girl is so terrified she has nightmares her mother will get out of jail, find her and continue the beatings.
Emotional pleas by the girl and her eight-year-old brother were read to Auckland District Court yesterday as their west Auckland mother was jailed for sustained and horrific abuse against them.
“I still have nightmares about what happened to me. In my dreams my mother and father are out of jail and trying to find me to hurt me some more,” the girl said in a victim impact statement.
Her brother, through a statement he insisted was read to court, told judge Brooke Gibson he wanted his parents to stay in jail for a long time.
“I was hurt for a long time so I think they should stay where they are for a long time too.
“There is nothing nice about my mum. I can’t think of any good things. I can think of lots of bad things. I don’t know why I was hit so much but I think it was because I wasn’t good enough.”
The case came to light last year when the girl, aged nine at the time, was found hiding in a cupboard in her home.
She was starving, dehydrated, bruised and suffering from broken bones and anaemia from internal bleeding and her scalp had been half torn off.
The case appalled the nation and has been dubbed one of the worst abuse cases in which a child had lived.
The mother pleaded guilty to 25 charges, including tearing off the girl’s toe nail and pouring boiling water and salt over the bleeding toe.
She wrote abusive comments on the girl’s body, kicked her in the vaginal area, and assaulted her with weapons, including a machete, broom handle and table leg.
The mother also abused her son, who was seven at the time.
The mother has spoken out, saying she is not a bad parent and was simply trying to protect her other three children.
“I’m a bad mum for what I done to the child but I’m not really a bad mother at all.”
Umm, yes you are a very bad mother. In fact you are a rather bad human being.
“My submission is that both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Social Development failed both [the child] and her mother.”
Yes, of course it is someone else’s fault. They made you pour boiling water on your children.
Just reading the impact statements to the court from the brother and sister makes you want to cry. An eight year old boy who says:
Her brother, through a statement he insisted was read to court, told judge Brooke Gibson he wanted his parents to stay in jail for a long time.
“I was hurt for a long time so I think they should stay where they are for a long time too.
“There is nothing nice about my mum. I can’t think of any good things. I can think of lots of bad things. I don’t know why I was hit so much but I think it was because I wasn’t good enough.”
Hopefully her kids can now go on to have a safer more loving life.