{"id":242121,"date":"2026-01-20T07:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242121\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T07:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:31:07","slug":"far-north-child-abuse-trial-trio-face-34-charges-of-violence-and-neglect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/242121\/","title":{"rendered":"Far North child abuse trial: Trio face 34 charges of violence and neglect"},"content":{"rendered":"

They include injuring with intent to injure, ill treatment of a child, assault with a weapon and assault of a child.<\/p>\n

The allegations include that the woman held a child\u2019s hand to a heater, causing burns.<\/p>\n

The court<\/a> heard the children were placed in the fulltime custody of the husband and wife by Oranga Tamariki due to the pair\u2019s existing family connection to them.<\/p>\n

Throughout that period, a third person lived at the address and is also accused of inflicting abuse on them.<\/p>\n

In his opening address to the jury, Crown lawyer<\/a> Ben Bosomworth said violence was commonplace for the children.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe woman allegedly abandoned the children at an Oranga Tamariki office and said she’d had enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many children, [the complainants] were mischievous and, at times, difficult to deal with and no doubt taking on the role and care of young children would have been hard at times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the defendants\u2019 automatic default response for any form of wrongdoing was a hiding.<\/p>\n

\u201cStealing chocolates – hiding. Stealing lollipops – hiding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese weren\u2019t just little taps; they were with full force. Sometimes with a whack to the face and sometimes items were used, sometimes sticks, belts, anything they could get their hands on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bosomworth alleged that on occasions the children were forced to sleep outside without warm clothes.<\/p>\n

Bosomworth said an Oranga Tamariki<\/a> psychologist would give evidence at the trial about how it became increasingly obvious the woman was losing her patience with the children, and how the woman had shared that when she was young, she got \u201chidings\u201d and it was a \u201cgood lesson\u201d.<\/p>\n

The woman eventually dropped the children off at the Oranga Tamariki office in Kait\u0101ia and told staff she\u2019d \u201chad enough\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bosomworth claimed the woman then refused to give any contact details for other family members, as she wanted the children left out of the family.<\/p>\n

Among the children\u2019s allegations, they claimed not to have been fed for two days.<\/p>\n

The woman\u2019s lawyer, Oscar Hintze, refuted all of the claims, telling the jury that none of it ever happened.<\/p>\n

Hintze told the jury to listen carefully to the evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake a deep breath because from a defence point of view, all you guys have heard is the bad stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to hear how the children came into their care, and it\u2019s not as straightforward as you think.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I can say is [the woman] did not abuse these children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband\u2019s lawyer, John Moroney, gave a similar opening statement and told the jury they had to put sympathy aside.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen to all the evidence, not just what the Crown says.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third defendant\u2019s lawyer, Martin Hislop, said his client was barely involved with the children and told the jury to keep an open mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cSit back and watch the evidence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The trial continues, and over the following days, the Crown will call several witnesses, including the complainants and Oranga Tamariki workers.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They include injuring with intent to injure, ill treatment of a child, assault with a weapon and assault…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[87913,1903,95,1873,2511,1872,528,42919,111,43,139,529,69,1118,54,13082,13118],"class_list":["post-242121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-87913","tag-abuse","tag-and","tag-charges","tag-child","tag-face","tag-far","tag-neglect","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-trial","tag-trio","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}