How CYF failed Baby Royal — twice
‘Highly vulnerable’ baby should have been seen within 24 hours of father’s alarm — three weeks later he was dead
Social workers should have checked the home of an “extremely vulnerable” baby within 24 hours when concerns were raised about his welfare, according to an internal Child, Youth and Family report into the infant’s death.
No one ended up visiting Richard Royal Uddin and less than three weeks later, he was declared dead in Tauranga Hospital.
He died from severe skull fractures similar to those suffered in a high-speed car accident.
Baby Royal, as he was known, was in the care of Surender Mehrok, who was in a casual relationship with Royal’s mother. Mehrok was convicted of manslaughter last year and sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison.
An investigation by the Herald has previously uncovered “unacceptable” breaches of policy and practice at Child, Youth and Family, now called Oranga Tamariki, which included a supervisor downgrading the priority of the case after missing a deadline.
When Baby Royal’s father — who was estranged from his son’s mother — called CYF with concerns about the infant being in her care, social workers prioritised the case as needing to visit the home within seven days.
This deadline was missed so a CYF supervisor manually downgraded the urgency of the case to a 20-day timeframe.
By marking the case as less urgent, the CYF office in Tauranga circumvented the “red flag” system in place and avoided a negative rating for poor performance.
“If Richard’s vulnerability had been recognised sooner, he would have been seen by a social worker and his safety assessed,” Tasi Malu, the Oranga Tamariki regional manager for the Bay of Plenty told the Herald when discussing the case last year.
“This may not have prevented his death, but even with the advantage of hindsight this was unacceptable.”
However, an internal CYF review into the death of Baby Royal obtained by the Herald on Sunday contains a significant new detail. Social workers underestimated the seriousness of the situation when setting the seven-day deadline in the first place, according to the report, and should have acted with far more urgency.
“The seven-day timeframe was not adequate to establish Richard’s safety given his extreme vulnerability,” according to the report released under the Official Information Act.
“In Richard’s case a 24-hour, or at the very least, a 48-hour response time was required to establish his immediate safety.”
The “report of concern” on May 20, 2016 was made by Baby Royal’s father, Nasir Uddin, who was separated from the infant’s mother, Nikita Winiata. She had called Uddin “about 20 times” around 1am, according to his police statement, and he could hear his son crying in the background. Uddin was sufficiently concerned to immediately call CYF.
The internal CYF report into Baby Royal’s death also shows the social workers at the Tauranga branch were under considerable pressure, in particular the supervisor.
“The challenging nature of the supervisory role, particularly allocation of work to meet timeframes in times of high volumes, cannot be underestimated,” said the report.
“Richard was a highly vulnerable 10-week-old baby in the care of a young mother,” said the report, which noted the baby was not seen by a social worker in the 19 days after the report of concern.
“Concerns had also been raised about the living environment . . . and there was not evidence of a protective adult in Richard’s immediate environment who could have ensured his safety.”
Malu said one of the first things which changed when CYF became Oranga Tamariki in 2017 was the immediate end to the old “traffic lights” system.
An extra 401 social workers had been hired over the past three years, Malu said, which meant average caseload numbers had dropped from 31 to 21 children.
The transition to Oranga Tamariki also identified the Tauranga office as “large and complex” so the site was split into two — east and west — with more staff and management.
The death of Richard Uddin may now be the subject of a coronial inquiry to investigate the actions of CYF and the police. However, any decision on whether an inquest will be held must be delayed until a final hearing in the Court of Appeal.
Mehrok was left to take care of Baby Royal on the evening of June 7, 2016 while the infant’s mother went out to pick up pizza. She
Richard was a highly vulnerable 10-week-old baby in the care of a young mother. CYF internal report
returned 30 minutes later to find her baby lifeless.
No one is entirely sure what happened, but Baby Royal suffered massive skull fractures akin to a highspeed car crash or being dropped from a multi-storey building.
Mehrok admitted inflicting the fatal injuries but claimed he reacted impulsively, rather than intentionally. He was convicted of manslaughter at a retrial last year but has now lodged an appeal against his term of imprisonment.
Mehrok was sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison and is now eligible for parole. His first application for early release in November was declined.
Now 24, Mehrok will be assessed by a psychologist before his next appearance in front of the Parole Board in April.
Once his sentence is completed, Mehrok will be deported to India.
His bid to reduce his sentence will be heard in the Court of Appeal in June.