Mother sentenced after failing to protect daughter from being killed
“Nikita, you failed as a mother to protect our daughter, you put her in harm’s way which led to her death.
“You could have sought family or me to look after her, but you chose your partner,” Arapera Fia’s father, Malcolm Fia, told his ex-partner at her sentencing yesterday.
The 2-year-old’s life was cut brutally short when she suffered a sustained and severe beating at the hands of her mother’s partner.
Her father said he was forever feeling the pain of not being able to see his “precious princess” ever again.
Nikitalove Brampton Tekotia, 24, was looking after Arapera in November 2021 with her partner, Tyson Brown.
Arapera died at Starship Children’s Hospital in the early hours of November 1, 2021 after being found with critical injuries at a property in Manurewa, south Auckland.
On the eve of her trial, she pleaded guilty to Arapera’s manslaughter by failing to protect her from injury, she gave evidence for the Crown against Brown, who was found guilty of Arapera’s murder.
Despite this, Tekotia then applied to vacate her guilty plea, which was declined by Justice David Johnstone.
Tekotia, who tearfully sat in the dock, was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention
Justice Johnstone took time off the starting point of four years’ imprisonment for her age, her guilty plea and having to give evidence at trial.
During the trial, he found she had to publicly relive Arapera’s death, had her naivety and her blind loyalty to her child’s manipulative killer exposed and it was a form of punishment to ensure Brown received a fair trial.
He also took time off for her background. Fia told the court yesterday about how Brown had taken away his legacy.
“I will never get the chance to hold [Arapera’s] hand on her first day of school.”
Fia spoke of the stress during the trial when Tekotia and her mother tried to exhume Arapera and had told the funeral director he’d given his permission. This was not true.
Prosecutor Luke Radich sought a sentence of imprisonment with a starting point of seven years but said discounts were available.
Tekotia’s lawyer, Emma Priest, said what happened that tragic day was a perfect storm and her client lived with the lifelong consequences. She sought a sentence of home detention so Tekotia’s new baby would not be raised without her mother.
She was a young mother suffering from PTSD after intergenerational domestic violence and she was locked in a home with a man who would go on to murder her daughter, Priest said.
“She was powerless as he became abusive towards her and Arapera.”
Justice Johnstone accepted Tekotia had no way to escape the home given the Covid-19 lockdown.
“You had limited ability to remove her entirely from the danger Mr Brown presented, which is in my view very significant,” the judge said.