Christopher Muston<\/a> put to her that it never happened, to which she responded: \u201cIt did\u201d.<\/p>\nYesterday, Douglas Blaikie, defence lawyer for the accused woman, cross-examined Sally in relation to the allegations involving his client.<\/p>\n
One incident of alleged abuse was said to have begun over a cellphone Sally hid under her T-shirt and she gave detailed evidence of what she recalled happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe started hitting me and the phone dropped out and she threw me into the corner and then slammed the door on my hands,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got up, went into the room and then my dad started going off at me, hitting me, calling me a c*** and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blaikie suggested the woman had not committed what was alleged. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is she lying?\u201d Sally asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are you lying?\u201d Blaikie responded, sparking an emotional outburst by Sally.<\/p>\n
![\"Judge]()
Judge Greg Davis is presiding over the jury trial. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not f***ing lying,\u201d she said before throwing a drink at the camera and leaving the room in which she was being cross-examined. <\/p>\n
Shortly after, Sally resumed giving evidence but Judge Greg Davis directed the remainder of the trial be conducted in closed court to relieve any potential issues with remaining complainants.<\/p>\n
Mary*, another child formerly in the couple\u2019s care, alleged she was also subjected to abuse.<\/p>\n
Her evidential interview was played to the jury today.<\/p>\n
Mary, now an adult, was on daily medication for neurological disorders and said that after three days in the couple\u2019s care they stopped giving her medication.<\/p>\n
She said she had a medical plan, a nightly routine for sleep and waking in the morning, and when she was off her medications she became violent and uncontrollable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a while, they\u2019d say, \u2018you don\u2019t need those medications\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say, \u2018I might look all right on the outside but if you don\u2019t want to see your house in a mess, I gotta have my right medication\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d send me to bed real late. It was pretty terrible. I didn\u2019t like them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mary said the couple often withheld food from her while she watched everyone else eat.<\/p>\n
She felt she was \u201ctreated like a dog\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The second complainant in the case has begun giving evidence. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
After her medications ceased, Mary became aggressive towards other children in the home and was allegedly beaten as punishment. On one occasion, she was left bleeding.<\/p>\n
She said she saw other children being beaten and would raise questions about why the couple were allegedly abusing children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to kill myself,\u201d she said in her evidential interview.<\/p>\n
Mary once threatened to self-harm, allegedly prompting the man to forcibly stop her and lock her in a room for three days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was nothing in it. I was locked up for three days and everything was all quiet. It\u2019s freaky, it\u2019s cold, I never had a shower, it was pretty sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girl said that on the day she was due to leave for a new home, she told the other children to speak up and say they\u2019d had enough.<\/p>\n
Alleged chilli assault, covered in bruises <\/p>\n
Mary recalled that on the way to the Oranga Tamariki offices she began swearing at the couple and they stopped the car.<\/p>\n
She alleged they were parked for five hours and she repeatedly warned Oranga Tamariki would be wondering where she was.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put all the sheets and blankets over the windows so no one could see what was happening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The caregivers allegedly lied to Oranga Tamariki about why they couldn’t take Mary to its office. Photo\/ RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/p>\n
She alleged the couple then held her down and poured chilli into her mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was screaming, I was crying and all I said was \u2018just kill me\u2019,\u201d the trial heard. <\/p>\n
\u201cI suffered through the hotness around my whole face. I was in so much pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mary said she reacted to the alleged chilli attack and her lips swelled, so the couple called Oranga Tamariki and said she was vomiting and they could not bring her in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI text the social worker. I said, \u2018Don\u2019t believe that. Come to the house and actually see what we\u2019ve been through\u2019. She didn\u2019t wanna answer her phone,\u201d Mary said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was counting the hours, the minutes, until I was out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day, as Mary arrived at the Oranga Tamariki offices, the man allegedly threatened her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you say anything, we will hunt you down and we will beat the hell out of you,\u201d she alleged the man warned her.<\/p>\n
Mary said she was covered in bruises and when asked by a social worker how they occurred, she said she did it to herself.<\/p>\n
The remaining complainants are yet to give evidence. The trial is expected to run for three weeks.<\/p>\n
*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the complainants.<\/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":"The alleged offending came to light when a child, Sally*, ran away and a friend\u2019s mother alerted police.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1903,74,26676,1763,25818,2511,5201,28560,1968,111,43,139,69,25816,3111,3109,6289,544,25817,223,1961,61,54,96,28561,1455,1869],"class_list":["post-29164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abuse","tag-after","tag-allegations","tag-article","tag-caregivers","tag-child","tag-closed","tag-complainant","tag-discusses","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oranga","tag-out","tag-public","tag-readers","tag-some","tag-tamariki","tag-the","tag-this","tag-to","tag-trial","tag-upsetting","tag-walks","tag-warning","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29164","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=29164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}