Young boy was so emaciated his social worker called ambulance
A four-year-old boy arriving at a whānau hui arranged by Oranga Tamariki was so emaciated he was unable to walk and so traumatised he couldn’t talk or express emotion, leading to a social worker to immediately call an ambulance.
The boy was one of two young children in a car being driven by Thomas Te Pairi in Christchurch on October 7, 2021.
Also in the car were two other women, one of whom was the boy’s mother.
The two women face multiple charges in relation to offending against the boy and have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial later this year. Their identities, and the identities of the children are presently suppressed.
Te Pairi, 43, pleaded guilty to four charges of assault on a child and one charge of assault with a weapon and was sentenced in the High Court at Christchurch last month.
Sentencing notes of Rachel Dunningham state that when the Oranga Tamariki social worker saw the boy he was “emaciated to the point where he was unable to walk and was so traumatised that he was unable to express any emotion or talk”.
He was covered in bruises, lacerations and scratches and had a fractured spine, ribs and sternum.
Te Pairi’s offending involved holding a lighter to the top of the boy’s right foot, causing a concentric ring-shaped burn with a diameter of 2cm. He also spanked and grabbed the boy causing bruises to his bottom and arms.
Dunningham said the offending with the lighter was “a deliberate and gratuitous assault against a very vulnerable child who, in practical terms, was in your care because you were an adult in the house he was living in”. She also noted that Te Pairi had a lengthy criminal history, but did not have any convictions for violence against children.
The judge received several reports on Te Pairi, which outlined his whakapapa, upbringing, his connection to Te Ao Māori and his current circumstances.
He was subject to significant abuse from a young age, had been homeless as a teenager, and later began associating with gangs and using methamphetamine and heroin.
“These reports paint a clear picture of a chaotic and disorganised upbringing where violence and abuse were normalised. It follows that when you were again placed in a stressful living situation with a developmentally challenged child and a lack of skills to deal with the child’s behavioural issues, you resorted to physical violence. That is not to excuse what you did, but your background certainly explains why you had no other strategies available to you,” Dunningham said.
Dunningham told Te Pairi there was a concern that he continued to blame others for the circumstances that had arisen, including blaming the boy for his behaviour and not acknowledging his own behaviour as being a problem.
There were also concerns that when Te Pairi had been offered community support such as mental health support in the past, he would often fail to turn up and would offer excuses like being too tired.
She said his lack of suitable accommodation meant a prison sentence was more appropriate than home detention or a community-based sentence.
She sentenced Te Pairi to 14 months in jail with several post release conditions.
These required him to complete an appropriate stopping violence programme, complete an appropriate Alcohol and Drug programme, and not to communicate in any way or associate with the victim of his offending, without the prior written approval of a Probation Officer.