Moral and legal disgrace’
‘‘Don’t make me feel bad. I don’t like it, but we’ve been through a very, very hard time ourselves – emotionally, financially, it’s been hurting us too. I’ve really suffered.’’
She made no apologies for their lifestyle. ‘‘We’ve worked hard all our lives to get to where we are now, I don’t have to justify anything.’’
The case had been brought as a private prosecution by Helen Kelly, the late Council of Trade Unions boss, after WorkSafe decided not to prosecute.
Kelly, who died of cancer in October 2016, wrote to Lawrence Harper urging him to do the right thing but got no reply.
Lawyer Tim Braithwaite, who was part of the team that took the prosecution, said Eruera had been unable to afford a headstone on her part-time district nurse’s wages, while Lawrence Harper, as sole director of Puketi Logging, had used the ‘‘shield’’ of a limited liability company to avoid responsibility.
‘‘It is a moral and legal disgrace that the assets of this director and his other companies are protected while young Eramiha’s family have not seen a cent, and cannot afford even the dignity of a headstone for their son,’’ he said.
Eruera said she wished she could afford a headstone because it felt like ‘‘unfinished business’’. ‘‘Maybe if I hit Lotto.’’
She was warned the Harpers might liquidate the company so was prepared not to receive the reparation.
‘‘Justice wasn’t really served, it tells me there’s a flaw within the system.’’
But she held no personal animosity towards the couple.
‘‘I’ve got other things to worry about – I’ve got a mortgage to pay, figure out how to save for a memorial. My mother is now getting treatment for cancer.
‘‘It’s either going to eat me up or I just leave it to the universe. I can’t have this hanging over me.’’
Eramiha was working alone and out of sight of his supervisor on a hillside near Taneatua on January 11, 2013 when he died.
It’s believed he was killed instantly when he was struck by a log attached to a harvest-line hauler that had snagged on an obstruction.
Judge Robert Wolff said it was clear the company had ‘‘dramatically failed’’ Eramiha as he was inadequately trained to deal with that sort of log and should not have been left alone.
His mother reserves most of her anger for WorkSafe.
She told its investigators about an incident a week before Eramiha died where he was struck in the face by a branch at work, but they ignored the information and it wasn’t included in the coroner’s report.
They seemed to place the blame on to her son, she said, and it made her wonder how many other cases that should have been prosecuted were not.
When she heard Kelly and the CTU were taking private prosecutions on behalf of families of killed forestry workers, she jumped at the chance.
‘‘I wanted answers and that was the only way I could get justice and also get exposure for what WorkSafe didn’t do.’’