Abuse pics reached police after murder
Photographs of the abuse suffered by Tauranga 5-year-old Malachi Subecz were taken by a daycare more than amonth before his murder at the hands of Michaela Barriball, the woman entrusted with his care.
The photos, whose existence can be revealed via court documents obtained by Stuff, were not made available to police, and Oranga Tamariki has declined to answer questions about whether it had them in their possession.
Court documents related to one of the specific charges, injuring with intent to injure, revealed that between September 24-27 ‘‘the injuries [were] seen and photographed by daycare’’.
Malachi was murdered between November 1 and 12.
Police said they only discovered the photographs ‘‘during the homicide investigation’’.
Oranga Tamariki was asked whether it had the photographs in their possession and, if so, when it received them, but no reply has been received.
Details of Malachi’s time at the daycare, which is not named in court documents, were also spelt out in the police summary of facts.
It noted when Barriball dropped him off at the daycare ‘‘the deceased’s hairstyle had been changed, with his fringe pulled over his forehead’’.
‘‘The deceased had multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to his head caused by the defendant Michaela Barriball, including a cluster of bruises under his chin, a scratch on his left mandible [lower jaw], a large swelling on his forehead (which his hair had been pulled over), and a progressively blackening left eye.’’
The summary also noted Barriball ‘‘was spoken to by staff at the daycare and told them that the deceased had fallen off his bike and had also fallen in the weekend’’.
‘‘The staff asked the deceased if he had fallen off his bike, to which he replied ‘no’’’.
Malachi also told daycare staff twice when attending to his injuries that Barriball ‘‘was going to be mad at him’’.
Malachi was meant to be at daycare until October 15 last year, but his last day was September 29, after which ‘‘he never returned’’.
‘‘Daycare staff reported that the deceased was a normal child, was not accident prone,’’ the summary of facts noted.
Stuff asked the manager of the daycare Malachi attended whether they were aware of the photographs, but they declined to comment, citing legal advice.