{"id":552165,"date":"2026-07-31T00:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/552165\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:27:12","slug":"marokopa-childrens-mother-describes-tom-phillips-as-a-dictator-says-she-objected-to-netflix-doco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/552165\/","title":{"rendered":"Marokopa children\u2019s mother describes Tom Phillips as a \u2018dictator\u2019, says she objected to Netflix doco"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first public interview since her children were found, Christey told Mata she was \u201cdead set against\u201d the Netflix documentary<\/a> but Detective Inspector Andrew Saunders said police did not need her permission.<\/p>\n

\"CatCat Christey said she was \u201cdead set against\u201d the Netflix documentary made about the disappearance of her children. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

\u201c[Saunders] told me they didn\u2019t need my permission, that they were just letting me know.\u201d<\/p>\n

She found out about the shooting and the discovery of her children after the documentary crew was told by police, she said. <\/p>\n

And Christey learned police had not decided to charge anyone in relation to assisting the former fugitive through media reports.<\/p>\n

She told Mata how she felt disregarded by police throughout the case and was denied support as she was not considered a victim of crime. <\/p>\n

Victim Support contacted police after Christey reached out to ask for help with her counselling and was told nothing could be done, she said. <\/p>\n

\"TomTom Phillips went missing along with his three children in 2021. Photo \/ NZ Police <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Manaaki T\u0101ngata Victim Support told RNZ it could not comment on individual cases. <\/p>\n

In response to Christey\u2019s allegations, Detective Inspector Ross McKay declined to comment on specifics. <\/p>\n

A number of the matters asked about are subject to a government inquiry,<\/a> making it inappropriate to comment, McKay told RNZ. <\/p>\n

Phillips was a good provider but a controlling partner who would dictate her finances, who she saw and when she saw them, and who would take her car keys away from her. <\/p>\n

Christey told RNZ how Phillips would slap her, and, on one occasion, strangled her, although she described him as not \u201dextremely violent\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis views on what a marriage should be were different to my own. We should have been a team. But there was no room for compromise; it was his way or the highway,\u201d she told RNZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he liked to be in control; he was a dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christey said Phillips had a fascination with guns, and she twice called 111 about it. <\/p>\n

Phillips took the phone off her and hung up both times. <\/p>\n

Christey said she believed police would come, but they did not. <\/p>\n

He kicked her out of their home afterwards, she said. <\/p>\n

She would not come back, despite repeated pleas from Phillips, RNZ reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the first public interview since her children were found, Christey told Mata she was \u201cdead set against\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1903,74,806,5842,1061,4749,1359,11557,270975,28353,2740,71,11782,42,16718,1345,108,14606,6178,1094,43,85460,10936,675,2687,312,20863,31145,61,5134,40,38,41,39,17251],"class_list":["post-552165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-abuse","tag-after","tag-as","tag-calling","tag-children","tag-childrens","tag-described","tag-describes","tag-dictator","tag-doco","tag-former","tag-from","tag-fugitive","tag-headlines","tag-him","tag-home","tag-kicked","tag-marokopa","tag-mother","tag-netflix","tag-news","tag-objected","tag-phillips","tag-police","tag-saying","tag-says","tag-she","tag-suffered","tag-to","tag-tom","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-twice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552165","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=552165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}