Two men and a woman are on trial at Whangārei District Court. (File photo)
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

WARNING: This article discusses allegations of child abuse and may be upsetting to some readers.

Allegations that two children were beaten for years, starved, forced to sleep outdoors and ultimately abandoned at an Oranga Tamariki office sit at the centre of charges against three people.

On Monday, the trial against two men and one woman from the Far North began at the Whangārei District Court, before a jury and Judge Philip Rzepecky.

The trio, who cannot be named, are accused of years of abuse against two children under the age of 12, culminating in 34 charges.

They include injuring with intent to injure, ill treatment of a child, assault with a weapon and assault of a child.

Among the allegations are that the woman held a child’s hand to a heater, causing burns.

The court heard the children were placed in the fulltime custody of the husband and wife by Oranga Tamariki, due to the pair’s existing family connection to them.

Throughout that period, a third person lived at the address and is also accused of inflicting abuse on them.

In his opening address to the jury, Crown lawyer Ben Bosomworth said violence was commonplace for the children.

“Like 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,” he said.

“The defendants’ automatic default response for any form of wrongdoing was a hiding.

“Stealing chocolates – hiding. Stealing lollipops – hiding.

“These weren’t 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.”

Bosomworth alleged that, occasionally, the children were forced to sleep outside, without warm clothes.

Bosomworth said an Oranga Tamariki 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 “hidings” and it was a “good lesson”.

The woman eventually dropped the children off at the Oranga Tamariki office in Kaitāia and told staff she’d “had enough”.

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.

Among the children’s allegations, they claimed not to have been fed for two days.

The woman’s lawyer, Oscar Hintze, refuted all the claims, telling the jury that none of it ever happened.

Hintze told the jury to listen carefully to the evidence.

“Take a deep breath, because from a defence point of view, all you guys have heard is the bad stuff,” he said. “You’re going to hear how the children came into their care and it’s not as straightforward as you think.

“All I can say is [the woman] did not abuse these children.”

Her husband’s lawyer, John Moroney, gave a similar opening statement and told the jury they had to put sympathy aside.

“Listen to all the evidence, not just what the Crown says.”

The third defendant’s lawyer, Martin Hislop, said his client was barely involved with the children and told the jury to keep an open mind.

“Sit back and watch the evidence,” he said.

The trial continues and, over the following days, the Crown will call several witnesses, including the complainants and Oranga Tamariki workers.

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.