The NZ Herald reports on what must be one of the worst cases of child abuse in a long time.
The West Auckland girl was found by police last month after they were called to her home for what is believed to have been a domestic dispute. She was taken to hospital where she was found to be starving and dehydrated. The girl was also anaemic from so much internal bleeding, had a broken bone in her foot and had extensive bruising all over her body.
Yesterday her parents, both of whom are unemployed, appeared in the Waitakere District Court charged in relation to her ongoing abuse and torture.
Her father, 32, is charged with assaulting her between January 2009 and November this year. He also faces charges of using a broomstick and a vacuum pipe as weapons to assault her during an eight-day period in November.
Her 30-year-old mother faces 32 charges including injuring with intent, assault with various weapons, wilful neglect by failing to seek medical help, withholding food, and causing grievous bodily harm. She also faces two charges of assaulting another child, aged 7, with a table leg and an unknown weapon. . . .
In April this year, her mother allegedly repeatedly punched her in the face and hands but never sought any medical treatment for her afterwards. The Weekend Herald understands the mother did however go to the doctors herself after breaking bones in both of her own hands during the beating.
In November the assaults intensified with her father allegedly beating her with a vacuum cleaner and a broomstick. During the same period her mother also allegedly attacked her on an almost daily basis.
It is alleged that on November 10 she assaulted her daughter with a broomstick, repeatedly punched her in the face and body, lifted her toenail and bent it backwards and caused grievous bodily harm with a hammer.
Over the next two days she was also allegedly hit with a broomstick and a table leg, repeatedly punched in the face and body, and kicked in the groin while her mother was wearing steel-capped boots.
On November 14 her mother allegedly tore off her daughter's toenail before pouring salt and then boiling hot water on to the bleeding wound.
The following day abusive comments were written on her body in felt-tip pen. Also during November the mother allegedly put the girl in a hot bath and held her head under the water, starved her of food and forced her to stand in the corner for long periods of time, sometimes naked, without moving.
It is alleged one beating went from 9 o'clock one night until 2 the following morning. . . .
When guilt-stricken and pity-driven politicians passed the anti-smacking law they told themselves that their law would stop this kind of thing happening in New Zealand. They were ridiculously self-deceived.
Such ungodly laws do far more harm than good. They do nothing to prevent the kind of crime The Herald has described. They do, however, threaten and intimidate good parents, thereby undermining stable family life. The legitimate focus of the state is to detect, investigate, prosecute and punish the guilty without remorse. The law cannot redeem. It cannot make people righteous. It is essentially a negative instrument: it punishes those who do wickedly.
When politicians try to write laws that will make people good, by preventing sins and crimes they err grievously. Such evils and crimes do exist; they will continue to exist. It is the duty of the state to detect, convict, and punish genuine child abusers, not detect, convict and punish parents who might one day abuse their children. Genuine focus upon such actual crimes by the police and the agencies of state would serve us far better. Police and agencies of state should be charged and focused upon these responsibilities, not upon applying a useless, ineffectual law in the vain hope that it would prevent such things ever happening in the future.
Well done, police and CYF officers. We are anguished over the child and her sufferings.
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