{"id":42328,"date":"2025-09-25T08:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/42328\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T08:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:58:08","slug":"friends-mum-says-girl-turned-up-after-fleeing-whangarei-oranga-tamariki-caregivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/42328\/","title":{"rendered":"Friend\u2019s mum says girl turned up after fleeing Whang\u0101rei Oranga Tamariki caregivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

As registered Oranga Tamariki caregivers<\/a> they had multiple children living with them over the years and four key witnesses are expected to testify about their experiences in the household.<\/p>\n

The alleged offending came to light when a child, Sally*,<\/a> ran away and a friend\u2019s mother alerted police.<\/p>\n

An investigation was opened, leading police to other children who had been in the couple\u2019s care at various stages.<\/p>\n

Eighteen of the charges relate to Sally, who referred to the accused as Mum and Dad. She alleges she was hit with a stick, burnt with a lighter, slapped and punched.<\/p>\n

A key incident in the trial has revolved around a cellphone Sally reportedly found at the Warehouse.<\/p>\n

She told police that when she tried to hand the phone in to security, they advised her to take it to police, but instead she took it home.<\/p>\n

When she got home, her parents became suspicious she was hiding something in her T-shirt and an altercation allegedly occurred.<\/p>\n

Sally said her mother began hitting her and when the phone dropped out, she was thrown into a corner.<\/p>\n

The girl then ran away, catching a bus and hitch-hiking to a friend\u2019s house on the other side of Whang\u0101rei.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, her friend\u2019s mother gave evidence to the court of what she recalled from the night Sally turned up at her home.<\/p>\n

She said she invited the girl in as it was a cold night and she did not have much clothing on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when the story unfolded that she had run away from home,\u201d the woman told the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had said they had pulled her hair and that was the first thing that indicated something not nice had happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little later in the conversation it became noticeable that her arm was sore and she said her arm had been pulled when they had tried to restrain her and stop her running away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sally confided in the woman that she hadn\u2019t eaten for two days, explaining her mother often called her fat, which made her feel uneasy about eating.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe trial at Whang\u0101rei District Court may now run for four weeks.<\/p>\n

Although Sally asked her not to, the woman contacted police and told the court what she heard Sally disclose to an officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said they took turns restraining her and punched and hit her in the head and back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The woman noted that while she didn\u2019t observe any visible injuries, Sally was clutching her arm and mentioned it was hurting.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Douglas Blaikie, who is representing the wife, put to the woman that Sally could have been \u201cputting it on\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe she was putting it on,\u201d she responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see a very terrified girl in front of me who had run a very long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, a doctor who examined Sally at Whang\u0101rei Hospital after the alleged assault testified about her findings.<\/p>\n

She reported that Sally was experiencing pain in her left arm, hand and central abdomen and also felt discomfort while breathing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not see bruising in my examination but there were other findings indicative of previous trauma,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also noted the girl had a scar below her knee, which Sally reported was from a burn allegedly inflicted by the caregivers.<\/p>\n

Another child in their care, Mary*, has testified in relation to 11 charges concerning her treatment.<\/p>\n

Among the allegations, she claims the couple restrained her and forced chilli into her mouth. She also reports being physically assaulted multiple times and gave evidence she was allegedly confined to a room without food for three days.<\/p>\n

Three additional children will testify about what they observed in the household, which may extend the trial to four weeks \u2013 one week longer than originally planned.<\/p>\n

Judge Greg Davis initially closed the courtroom to accommodate the children\u2019s testimonies but has since reopened the proceedings to the public.<\/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":"As registered Oranga Tamariki caregivers they had multiple children living with them over the years and four key…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1903,74,26676,1763,25818,2511,1968,15037,1445,6868,2721,111,43,139,69,25816,6289,312,544,25817,1961,19054,810,96,1455,1869],"class_list":{"0":"post-42328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-allegations","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-caregivers","13":"tag-child","14":"tag-discusses","15":"tag-fleeing","16":"tag-friends","17":"tag-girl","18":"tag-mum","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-oranga","24":"tag-readers","25":"tag-says","26":"tag-some","27":"tag-tamariki","28":"tag-this","29":"tag-turned","30":"tag-up","31":"tag-upsetting","32":"tag-warning","33":"tag-whangrei"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42328","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=42328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}