Juror “Embarassed” To Be A New Zealander, Sue Bradford “Ashamed To Be A Kiwi”

Teamster / March 20, 2011

Thinking of emigrating to New Zealand because its such a great place to raise kids, would you want to raise your kids in a society that does this to its children?

A New Zealand jury has just acquitted a man charged under their country’s controversial anti-smacking legislation, even though the accused admitted to tying his son (by a previous marriage) by his wrist and then by his neck, shaving off his hair, and washing his mouth out with soap

The Sunday Star Times covered the story of the the jury empathising with the parents having to go through the ‘ordeal’ of being prosecuted for their actions. The man’s wife was heavily pregnant and had to climb stairs at the courthouse every day.

The lead juror in the child cruelty case said she was “embarrassed to be a New Zealander” because the couple on trial were “good decent parents trying to instil a sense of responsibility“.

But former Green MP Sue Bradford, the law’s architect, said she was ashamed people thought such actions were acceptable. To her they amounted to assault.

The father and his new wife were found not guilty after a trial on 15 charges alleging cruelty against two children from his previous marriage. The children were aged 10 and under at the time.

The couple’s lawyer used Section 59 of the Crimes Act, the amendment championed by Bradford, as a defence.

The case tested the amendment and showed what a jury would allow in terms of “justified force” to prevent or minimise harm, or to stop the child engaging in “offensive or disruptive behaviour”.

We’re not going to re-publish the shocking list of abuse perpetrated on this Christian, church attending man’s children here on this blog, you’ll have to read the SST’s report.

Suffice to say that in most developed countries these children may well have been taken from an abusive parent and placed in foster homes. Somehow, though some cruel twist in logic, this sort of treatment of children is now seen as reasonable force under the circumstances at the time of the incidents.

Sue Bradford told the paper

“It does make me ashamed to be a Kiwi to think there are so many people out there who still accept all of this.”

But It would seem that these sort of actions are accepted as typical

Family First director Bob McCoskrie said: “This family has been put through hell for almost two years, after being charged for typical parenting practices on unsubstantiated claims made by unreliable sources. And they have been completely and utterly acquitted by their peers in a prolonged court case.”

Typical? Typcial for where?

It’s just as well that adults aren’t treated like this isn’t it. Can you imagine having your boss wash your mouth out with soap because you swore when your PC crashed, or being tied to the desk to prevent you from taking a smoko, or worse still your grandmother being tied to her bed to stop her wandering the care home at night ? Yet somehow its ok to do it to children and expect them to grow up to be normal, well adjusted adults.

Is it any wonder that New Zealand is ranked joint third in the world by UNICEF for the highest number of child maltreatment deaths (1.2 per 100,000 children) only the US and Mexico have more.

This is a quote taken from a Save the Children, NZ document called “HEAR OUR VOICES“

“Aotearoa/ New Zealand has;

A problem with gangs that are contributing to crime and abuse in the home. Young people are joining gangs for safety and are becoming victims of gang life.

A problem with bullying – particularly of specific groups like refugee and migrant young people.

A problem with child abuse which is not just statistics or features in death notices in newspapers but a reality that many of the young story tellers knew and experienced.

An issue with domestic violence affecting the lives of many children and young people.“

Young child deaths in NZ since the ‘Anti-smacking’ law was passed

Kash McKinnon

At the same time businessman Colin Craig launches an appeal to protest march for ‘democracy’ – parental rights to hit their children (the “anti-smacking law”)

Other news stories you may find interesting

Teacher pulled ears ‘heaps’, boy tells court -22 March 2011

School children have told a court their teacher pulled their ears, kicked them and threw a chair at one of them when he got angry.

Wi Derek Huata, 53, a teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Ngati Kahungunu Ki Heretaunga in Hastings, is on trial in Napier District Court, facing 10 charges of assaulting a child and two of assault with a weapon…

Other blogs you may find interesting:

Chose from any tagged bullying

2 thoughts on “Juror “Embarassed” To Be A New Zealander, Sue Bradford “Ashamed To Be A Kiwi””

Mere Birch says:

April 15, 2015 at 12:11 am

Wow I had my mouth washed out with a sunlight bar (soap), I had a crow bars, hammers, wood blocks etc bashed over my head. I was often kept home from school until the wounds were no longer transparent. The amount of times I had my head split open (& I’ve lived to tell the tale). I still have all the tell tale scars on my head from all the bashing’s I got as a kid. I hated going to get a haircut when I was a teenager & during my 20-30s. Hairdressers always asked where all the scars came from? & why I had so many. I hated it. You would probably think I was a bad kid which led my mother to beat me to a pulp. How bad can a 5,6,7,8,9,10,11 year old be to deserve such harsh bashing’s. Your wrong. I grew up to realise my mother had a serious problem. I didn’t know it then but I learnt about these types of behaviors reading the papers, books and now the internet as I’ve got older and progressed in life. The problem is I have never been able to forgive her. I despised her so much I refused to go to her funeral. I’m still pissed off more for reasons she was not my biological mother. Social Welfare (CYFS) put me and two others in the care of this woman to do whatever she wanted. Thats right CYFS. The problem is getting worse. The Government doesn’t care too hoots. The media makes a profitable killing, it creates work for the health system (across the board) and everyone else who will capatalise on ill-treated children. It will never improve. Child abuse is an industry in this day and age. The problem is here to stay – regrettably 😦 Everyone reads about this stuff everyday but who will make a change?? I never got to hold this woman accountable. She went to the grave with all her secrets & is resting in peace. I wish I could live in peace.
Old Forum Reader says:

March 21, 2011 at 9:14 am

As is the case in many countries now, not just New Zealand, there is a reactionary trend against mothers in the courts, in response to a perceived bias in favor of mothers in past decades, single mothers of any character being deemed inferior to a couple. This has too frequently resulted in drug-addled young men receiving “shared care” of breastfeeding infants, and custody of children being awarded to inappropriate, immature, abusive or neglectful people, usually men, simply because they managed to hook up with another person, combine incomes and represent themselves as more “stable and established” than one of those reviled, incapable single mothers, who all live on estates and produce street criminals as we know (like PM Key?, ha ha). It is happening all over, for example, here are two Australian stories on the trend:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/kids-get-their-day-in-court/story-fn6bqphm-1226024275344
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/courts-injustices-fail-kids/story-e6frg6nf-1111112972470

In a society like NZ, where physical punishment is still approved for discipline, the results are all the more tragic. I have never lived anyplace where fast superficial impressions were accepted so unquestioningly! Despite having elected a (note, rather atypical) woman as a PM, they mostly have a frighteningly Biblical, outdated concept of the female animal in New Zealand as an emotional, dangerous, weak, irrational, “mental” creature that needs harnessing, pinning, stabilising, balancing or “grounding” through control or influence by men. Salem, MA, 1692 anyone? Some women buy into this and play to it in a perverse effort at empowerment, much in the manner that Maori will try to scare you by claiming to have Once Been Cannibals, entrenching the situation all the more. The men here are like 1950s men, for better or worse. The courts have selectively embraced those elements of trendy social research (on which court decisions are based) that support NZ cultural biases. There have been a few discussions on NZ migrant sites on the gender divide as it manifests in New Zealand. Net searches will disclose some interesting thoughts on the matter. On city-data, one poster remarked that things are “ass-backwards” in NZ compared to the States. Others on Expatexposed wondered why women were so constantly being referred to as “screeching” in NZ if they raised their voices the slightest bit. Conservative parties are less hesitant about hammering stereotypes in NZ, that is, they receive less flak for it. Ex.: few objected when they made fun of Helen’s looks in the last election, the majority of women didn’t call them on it as a cheap shot. On http://www.nzhistory.net.nz, it describes how during WWII, American men angered Kiwi men by charming Kiwi girls with their politeness and well-taken-care-of teeth. As far as my experience goes, that says it all right there.