Neglected kids survived on rotten bread

A mother left her children alone in filth, eating rotten bread – but she’s a good person her supporters insist.

South Auckland mother Tala Pita, 33, was sentenced at the Manukau District Court yesterday on five charges of wilful neglect.

Judge Andree Wiltens said Pita ‘‘basically’’ deserted her young children and ‘‘left them to their own devices’’.

Back home after her court sentencing Pita, face worn, arms folded, was reluctant to talk.

‘‘I’ve been through a lot today,’’ she said. Despite her neglectful treatment of her children, her main worry now is that she may not see them again.

‘‘I have contact with them about once a month. I’m not quite sure when I’m going to see them again.’’

At her side Pastor Joe Bati is quick to step in for her. Despite what had happened she was ‘‘a good person’’ he said.

Bati provides her with counselling and the low-ceilinged living room of her home now doubles as a worship space for a church congregation. Outside a faded, deflating kids paddling pool sits unused in the junk-cluttered front yard.

Overgrown grass fringes the grubby white cinder block fence. Discarded underwear is crumpled in the grass.

Across the wide road a bollarded park is equally unkempt. Rubbish is strewn throughout, a teddy bear lies unclaimed.

Darryl Evans, a budgeting adviser in South Auckland, said there were no excuses for Pita’s neglect and ‘‘nobody else to blame’’.

Peter Sykes, from the Mangere East Family Service Centre, said he had ‘‘sympathy’’ for the mother.

‘‘Sometimes the fact is they don’t have any food because the income levels of our families [are] lower than what’s sustainable in my view.

‘‘Some of them work their butts off and don’t actually have any choice because Mum’s working, Dad’s working, it’s almost institutional-created neglect because they can’t afford anybody to look after the children.’’

He said many families in South Auckland’s poorest neighbourhoods would not realise an 11-year-old shouldn’t be put in charge of other children.

Pita’s offending took place in the South Auckland suburb of Clendon over several weeks in September and October of 2015. The court heard she left her four youngest children in the care of their 11-year-old sibling for extended periods.

Judge Wiltens said when police first went to Pita’s house they encountered a strong smell of urine, a toilet bowl filled with faeces and food scraps but no toilet paper. There was no fridge and no washing machine and rubbish was piled up around the house.

Police said there was cereal scattered through the lounge and the children were eating rotten bread and corned beef ‘‘because there was nothing else’’.

Judge Wiltens said while Pita had made ‘‘noises of remorse’’, she only pleaded guilty to the charges late last year after he had spoken to her ‘‘rather sternly’’.

She was given six months of community detention and 18 months of intensive supervision. The sentence of community detention has a 7pm to 7am curfew.

Pita’s lawyer Tamara Ormand said Pita now had limited contact with her children and it was difficult for her to come to terms with the fact they wouldn’t be placed back in her care.

Evans, who was interviewed after the court case and laid the blame with the mother, said there was also a wider social context.

’’Families are moving a lot more often than they used to because they’re migrating south for much cheaper rents.

‘‘You’re moving out of a locality where you had family and friends, you’re moving to a new area purely because of economics . . . but you don’t have the wraparound support or you can’t pick up the phone and say to somebody can you just watch the kids while I nip to the supermarket? It takes time to build those new relationships.’’

However, he still comes down hard on Pita.

‘‘I’ve done a lot of study with child protection cases and various types of abuse and leaving your kid at home unattended and unsupervised is really neglectful.

‘‘For once I’m going to have to err on the side of you’ve gotta follow what the law says because that’s why it’s there it’s there to protect children. It’s [Pita’s neglect] not appropriate at any level.’’

Evans said the supervision aspect of the sentence was appropriate.

‘‘Not everybody is well equipped to be a mother or a father,’’ he said.

Alan Johnson, from Salvation Army, said the case was ‘‘a tragedy’’.

‘‘Sometimes people make very bad choices because that’s all the choices they’ve got to make.

‘‘Poverty is a contributing factor but I don’t think you can blame poverty for what happened.

‘‘Most people who we would say are living in poverty actually live in houses that are orderly and tidy and do the best they can for their kids.’’