{"id":633852,"date":"2026-10-17T23:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T23:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633852\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T23:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T23:26:10","slug":"election-2026-national-proposes-exception-to-right-to-silence-in-child-murder-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633852\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: National proposes exception to right to silence in child murder cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">The offence would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cNew Zealanders will remember numerous high-profile examples throughout our history where children have been brutally murdered, and police have been unable to identify the attacker because people have chosen not to share critical information with them,\u201d Goldsmith said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"National's justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says the offence will exempt adults present around the death of a child aged 12 or under from the right to silence. Photo \/ Getty Images\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>National&#8217;s justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says the offence will exempt adults present around the death of a child aged 12 or under from the right to silence. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe right to remain silent is a fundamental principle, however, it should not be absolute when a child has lost their life and, for example, there are only three people in the house, but no one is talking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">Such cases include the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/a-moment-in-crime-the-kahui-twins-who-killed-chris-and-cru\/ILUUI2V6A6GWFN4TPUOKRQR6FA\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/a-moment-in-crime-the-kahui-twins-who-killed-chris-and-cru\/ILUUI2V6A6GWFN4TPUOKRQR6FA\/\">deaths of Chris and Cru Kahui<\/a>, 84-day-old twin brothers who died just hours apart in 2006 after being violently assaulted at their M\u0101ngere home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">Their father, Chris Kahui, was charged with murder yet acquitted in a trial by jury, and to date, no person has been charged or convicted over the boys\u2019 deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cNational is committed to fixing the basics in law and order, and building a future where all New Zealanders can feel safe in their communities,\u201d Goldsmith said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt is a basic expectation that people speak up and provide police with the information they need when investigating the death of a child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cToo many children in New Zealand die at the hands of, or with the knowledge of, people who should be protecting them. The right to silence should not be abused to the extent that these horrific crimes go unpunished. <\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis will place perpetrators, and their accomplices, into a corner where they will eventually call each other out, because if they don\u2019t, they will all face the consequences.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"FxSPvgIxedhFU\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offence would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. \u201cNew Zealanders will remember numerous high-profile&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,4995,2512,2511,5903,109760,78,4275,3556,111,43,139,69,15483,3587,56522,9979,11165,199,61],"class_list":["post-633852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-away","tag-cases","tag-child","tag-election","tag-exception","tag-in","tag-murder","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-promising","tag-proposes","tag-reelected","tag-right","tag-silence","tag-take","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633852","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=633852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}