Courts face Moko anger
Justice goes on trial tomorrow when a couple are sentenced in a shocking child-abuse case. Matt Shand reports.
‘ His killers were able to enter into a plea-bargain arrangement. That is an insult to Moko.’
MOKO Rangitoheriri’s mischievous smile, his family say, could let him get away with murder.
That was when the three-yearold was being cheeky – and being cheeky is what he did best.
Before he was placed in the cruel care of David Haerewa and Tania Shailer, his life revolved around Bob the Builder, Go-Fish, and playing with his brother and sister.
‘‘He was such a little go-kart kid,’’ a family member said. ‘‘He was always running somewhere.’’
Many families quip that their children could get away with murder. It’s an expression used at coffee groups and kindergarten playgrounds.
No one really gets away with murder. At least not with a smile.
Tomorrow, Moko’s killers will be sentenced for manslaughter, after prosecutors decided they couldn’t make murder charges stick. In the 30 seats in the public gallery and outside, among the placard-bearing protesters, will be members of Black Power, Maori sovereignty activists, and Sensible Sentencing Trust lobbyists.
Over two months Moko was repeatedly hit, kicked, thrown, dropped face-first on the floor, bitten and stomped on with such force that his bowel ruptured.
Yet it is believed prosecutors dropped a murder charge, not because they couldn’t prove the couple’s murderous intent, but because the little boy took so long to die last August– in such agony – that they could not be certain of convincing a jury that it was the violence that caused his death.
As with the death of 15-year-old Stephen Dudley in a schoolboy fight, there could have been other health problems, such as infection, that contributed to Moko’s death.
Senior government figures are talking up a life sentence, which can, on rare occasions, be imposed in the most brutal of manslaughter cases.
But Sensible Sentencing Trust legal advisers have found a precedent which suggests a different result.
Founder Garth McVicar predicts the killers could be jailed for as few as four years.
‘‘Police did the right thing,’’ he said. ‘‘They charged Moko’s killers with murder. But his killers were able to enter into a plea-bargain arrangement that allowed them to plead guilty to manslaughter. That is an insult to Moko.’’
The downgrading to manslaughter charges has outraged New Zealand and thousands are expected to march on court houses across all across the country tomorrow. Marches have even been organised in Australia.
Attorney General Chris Finlayson has slammed all criticism of the plea deal as ‘‘dangerous and ill-informed’’. He will explain the decision ‘‘in words of one syllable’’ after tomorrow’s sentencing.
The Solicitor-General provides prosecution guidelines which Crown solicitors must follow, Finlayson says.
The closest precedent McVicar’s lawyers could find was 2006 killing of Ngatikaura Ngati. Like Moko, Ngatikaura was three years old and suffered sustained abuse. His mother, Maine Ngati, and stepfather Teusila Fa’asisila, were tried for his murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
‘‘Their sentence was eight years and seven months, with a minimum non-parole period of four years three months, ‘‘ McVicar said. ‘‘The judge in this case is very competent, but he will be bound by precedent.’’
Tomorrow is judgement day for Moko’s killers, and for some, judgement day for the legal system.