The woman who thought she could fix her killer
No-one’s surprised Jamie Te Hiko is going to jail for murder. After all, killing women runs in the family.
Jamie Te Hiko this week was found guilty of murdering his partner, Queenie Selena Thompson.
A cousin says not only is he not alone in being convicted of killing a woman, he’s far from the only Te Hiko who has abused one.
In 2006, Jamie’s nephew Whetu Te Hiko murdered Tokoroa schoolteacher Lois Dear.
Whetu had 13 prior convictions, eight of them for assaulting women and children. He, like Jamie, had a violent upbringing.
In 2000, Whetu’s brother Hamuera Te Hiko was jailed for 14 years for the manslaughter of his wife, Eliza, after he sexually violated, hit and bit her at Putaruru in December 2000.
Their cousin, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Jamie’s problems started in childhood and he never found his way out.
‘‘He could be a lovely man, but the problem he and his siblings have is they all came from violence. They all carry the same violent streak. I just want people to understand what background Jamie came from. People ask where the f... do these people come from? The answer is Tokoroa. If you were Maori and came from Tokoroa, then 90 per cent of the time you came from violence or understand violence.
‘‘It’s a sad fact of life. There, it is quite normal to smash over the missus and Jamie came from that. The damage was already done.’’
In court, Jamie took the stand and said he was brought up in a very ‘‘no-nonsense’’ sort of manner by his father and grandfather.
‘‘I was brought up hard,’’ he testified. No nonsense. No mucking around. No bulls .... ’’
Te Hiko was always in the bush hunting animals to help feed families. But he was surrounded by violence, alcohol and drug use.
On the night he beat Thompson to death, he claimed he’d been drinking and smoking meth and just snapped when she made a comment about cheating on him.
Thompson faced a living weapon in a murderous rage.
The Te Hiko cousin said a cycle of violence and alcohol abuse had filtered through the family line and their attitudes towards it were skewed by that.
That attitude was evident as the guilty verdict was read out at the High Court in Rotorua on Tuesday after a jury took just 45 minutes to find Te Hiko guilty.
‘‘It was her fault anyway, cuz,’’ one family member yelled out.
‘‘She knew what you were like. She was meant to stay away.’’
The cousin said that attitude was common.
‘‘The men blame their women for their hidings. Jamie has never been in control of his anger. He’s never known how hard he can punch. He’s an ex-sergeant at arms for a notorious gang. An attack dog. He’s violent.’’
Criminologist Greg Newbold has been compiling a database on family members that all commit serious crimes and said stories like Te Hiko’s occur all too often in his research notes.
‘‘It’s intergenerational family violence,’’ he said. ‘‘People who commit these types of extremely violent crimes normally come from violent families themselves. So too, often do the victims because it’s normal for them. It often happens more than once, but they stay with them.
‘‘This is passed down from generation to generation,’’ Newbold said.
‘‘The situation is always compounded when alcohol and substance abuse are also common within the family environment. But it isn’t inevitable. Newbold said it only takes one family member to shake of the chains to undo years of intergenerational abuse.
‘‘I know someone who came from a serious background of violence,’’ he said.
‘‘They just went their own way and managed to move away from their family. They don’t allow swearing, smoking or drinking in front of their children, and they have all turned out fine.
‘‘They are heading to university and have grown up right despite their parents coming from that background and not having an education themselves.’’
The Te Hiko cousin said while the family carried the stigma, it is important to not tar everyone with the same brush.
‘‘The Te Hikos I know, they’re not bad,’’ the cousin said.
‘‘They are not dangerous and are a very loving and close family. But the public will just write them off and say stay away from them.’’
‘‘He could be a lovely man, but the problem he and his siblings have is they all came from violence.’’ A cousin of the killer