Young kids found dirty, cold and barely clothed

Parents of a 7-week-old baby and a toddler found neglected on a double mattress smeared with faeces in the cold have been sentenced to 12 months’ intensive supervision.

The Gisborne couple, aged 19 and 21, both unemployed, each pleaded guilty to two jointly laid charges of child neglect.

They appeared together for sentence by Judge Haamiora Raumati, who granted the couple permanent name suppression but told the pair it was for the children’s benefit — not theirs.

The hearing was told the couple were immature, and lacked basic parenting skills.

Gisborne District Court heard that police officers found the children when they went to the house on unrelated matters last year.

It was a cold day and the scantily clad children were in the lounge on a double mattress smeared with faeces.

The 2-year-old was wearing only a pyjama top.

She had soiled herself and faeces were encrusted on her legs.

When an officer pointed it out, the mother made a halfhearted attempt to remove it.

She put a nappy on the child, covering up some of the remaining excrement.

The baby was so precariously positioned on the bed, she could easily have been knocked off.

The house was littered with food scraps and dangerous rubbish, including a smashed computer monitor with broken glass and exposed wires.

There was so much rubbish on the floors, officers had difficulty finding a path from one room to another.

One of the rooms was used as a workshop and was strewn with broken TVs, electronics and chainsaws.

There was no food in the kitchen except for old vegetables in the bottom of an empty fridge, and a tin of baby formula on a bench.

Police contacted Oranga Tamariki (then CYF ) and tried to remove the children that same day, but the mother had taken them away. When police returned the next day, the house was locked and the curtains drawn.

The mother was out but the children were inside with their father, who was so deeply asleep police had difficulty waking him — even after banging on doors and yelling through a partly opened window.

It was another cold day with snow forecast.

The baby was dressed only in a “onesie”, shaking cold, soaked wet with urine and wearing a nappy full of faeces.

The inside of the house was unchanged from the day before.

The baby was in a plastic container under the opened window. The couple later said the container was a purposedesigned sleeping pod.

The baby was dressed only in a “onesie”, shaking cold, soaked wet with urine and wearing a nappy full of faeces. Her mattress was also wet.

The 2-year-old was watching TV in darkness in another bedroom and at one point was carrying a large butane gas lighter.

The children were removed and the couple charged.

The man initially denied responsibility for neglect as he had been asleep and the woman said she was not at the house when the children were taken away.

The man said he knew they were in a bad situation but had been reluctant to admit it, blaming the state of the house on “laziness”.

Police wanted a sentence of community work as well as supervision, but Judge Raumati agreed with the father’s defence counsel Lucy Rishworth, and Charlotte Scott for the woman, that community work could interfere with the rehabilitative sentence the couple needed if they were to get the children back.

It had been nine months since the children were removed.

As part of her supervision, the mother was also forbidden from drinking alcohol or using non-prescription drugs.

Judge Raumati was sceptical of the couple’s claim they were no longer together and that the woman intended to move closer to family and raise the children on her own. People trying to get children back often made the same claims, he said.

What they did was unacceptable — especially given the additional vulnerability of extremely young children — and they needed to “grow up” and look after the children properly, he said.

Although the couple would get a rehabilitative sentence this time, authorities would now be watching them and if they came to court again, the outcome would be very different, he warned.

Rishworth said the couple were “notably immature”.

Each had had a challenging upbringing and lacked the basic parenting skills to care for an active toddler and a baby.

Pre-sentence reports assessed each of the couple as being a low risk of harm to others and posing a low risk of reoffending.

Judge Raumati said the mother should not have her children back until it was clear she could provide a safe and loving home for them.