‘People out there know something’: Police on serious injuries to children
Police are investigating how two Lower Hutt children suffered injuries “so horrific that both required hospitalisation and surgery”.
“There are people out there who know something,” Detective Senior Sergeant Rebecca Cotton from the child protection team in Wellington said at a media briefing this afternoon.
The injuries to the four and five-yearold siblings were “very, very severe”, said Cotton. The injuries were so extensive that one child required surgery, and police and healthcare experts had not been able to ascertain how long the abuse had been going on.
Family were co-operating with police to varying degrees, said Cotton, but she felt some people who had spoken to police had more information than they had let on. “We are urging those people to come back and tell us everything they know.”
Police faced a similar challenge last year when family members refused to share what they knew about the abuse of a child, who died from blunt force trauma. The killer of Baby Ru has never been charged.
“The child abuse situation in New Zealand is absolutely horrendous,” said Megan West from charitable trust Child Matters, which trains social workers to recognise child abuse.
The abuse would have lifelong effects on children, and most cases of child abuse were sustained over a long period with multiple types of abuse, said West, who has worked as a social worker and specialist interviewer for child witnesses.
“The rates of child abuse are far too high and as a country, we should be appalled.”
It led to situations like this one, where children were hospitalised, as well as deaths like in the case of Baby Ru or the Kahui Twins.
“Cases like this are incredibly complex. What complicates them further is when adults are in communities that know what’s going on but refuse to say anything,” said West.
The Lower Hutt children were interviewed by police yesterday in hospital and were now in the care of Oranga Tamariki. The family was known to police and Oranga Tamariki before the children were hospitalised.
Police officers had been to where the family were living previously but Cotton said there were no concerns then.
“The children were sighted and happy and healthy.”
Police believe that injuries – brain bleeds, lacerated internal organs, multiple fractures – to the siblings were inflicted deliberately over a period of time. Police are asking for help from anyone who might have seen the child abuse.
The two children were discharged on Friday after two weeks in hospital.
“It’s frustrating,” Cotton said, in response to a question about people stonewalling investigations into child abuse.
“I just keep coming back to, the people that can stand up and speak to us, need to. These children are vulnerable. And we need help from the community.”
Cotton said the information police needed in the Stokes Valley case would be “quite obvious to the people that have seen the things we are interested in”.
“We know the children were seen by other people in the community and there are people out there that know something. We urge you to come forward and speak to us.”
As well as speaking to media, the police put up a plea for information on Facebook.
The two children were living in the Stokes Valley house with their mother, but various people were coming through the property on a regular basis. The properties did not belong to Kāinga Ora, said a spokesperson for the social housing agency.
The investigation into the Stokes Valley children began when concerned hospital staff alerted police offers to a possible family harm incident, after a young child had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance on March 8.
Cotton said the ambulance was called by someone who was in the Stokes Valley house at the time. She would not say whether the property was linked to a gang.
The family had recently moved to a Stokes Valley address from Waterloo. The children had been living in the new home for just two nights when they were taken to hospital.
Rachel Leota from Oranga Tamariki said the agency was aware of the police investigation and working alongside police, so could not provide further detail.
“Oranga Tamariki acknowledges the incredibly distressing nature of this and would encourage anyone with information to contact police,” she said.
Police have completed investigations around the Stokes Valley area in the Operation Tempo case, but are now asking the wider community for help.
They want any information about any suspicious activity seen or heard at either address, or nearby, on or prior to Friday, March 8, that may assist in the investigation.
If you have any information that may help police, you can contact them on 105 or via 105.police.govt.nz and reference file number: 240308/4647.
Alternatively you can report any information anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
“The rates of child abuse are far too high and as a country, we should be appalled.”
Megan West Child Matters