The team at E2NZ.org are saddened to learn of the death of 14 month old Christchurch toddler Ihaka Stokes. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and wider whanau.

Ihaka died from multiple blunt force fractures in an extremely violent assault, according to police.

Detective Inspector Greg Murton said Ihaka’s injuries included several fractured bones and other non-accidental injuries. “Ihaka was the victim of an extremely violent assault, or assaults, and has subsequently died of his injuries,” he said. Murton would not comment on what caused the injuries, but said he had never seen an attack on a child as serious. .

Police came to their conclusion based on the scene examination and autopsy results. No charges had been laid. Ihaka’s body has been returned to his family.

Relatives have posted tributes to Ihaka online, noting his “cheeky grin and soft nature”. source

Few migrants to New Zealand are aware that the country has an appallingly high rate of child abuse – the fifth highest in the OECD. On average one child is killed every 5 weeks.  New Zealand is ranked third worst in the world by UNICEF for child maltreatment deaths and the NZ Human Rights Commission has identified significant human rights issues in relation to violence in New Zealand Schools.

New Zealand is often presented as a great place to raise children, but in reality many children are raised in dysfunctional families and go on to perpetuate the cycle of abuse when they become adults. These children are 25% more likely to experience delinquency, teen pregnancy, low academic achievement, drug use and mental health problems (source). These damaged individuals will be your childrens’ peer group, they become the adults you will interact with on a daily basis, these will be the school teachers and nursery workers who will be helping you to raise your kids. They have become the adults in senior Government departments who perpetuate “intimidation and destructive behaviour” and lead to “cultures of bullying” in services such as the Ministry of Health (source).

The NZ government has admitted its got a huge problem and isn’t coping well with resolving it. In its report card on Better Public Service Targets it has highlighted its failure to tackle child abuse.

The report revealed that in the year to March 2015, 3,144 children were assaulted and there were 3,111 assaults the previous year.

However, official police stats tell a different story. They show there were a record 5,397 violent assaults on children in 2014. (source Labour’s Children spokeperson Jacinda Arden).

But even the police stats massively under-report the scale of New Zealand’s shameful child abuse problem (more creative accounting of police stats perhaps?)  Child Youth and Family (CYF) received 146,657 reports of concern in the year to June 2014. Of those, 88,768 were Care and Protection reports of concern and 57,889 were Police Family Violence Referrals. Source

The CYF report states there were 19, 623 substantiated findings of abuse, including emotional, physical, sexual and neglect. The scale of that abuse costs New Zealand around $2 billion every year.

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Both mothers have also been taken to tenancy tribunals for not paying rent and extensively damaging properties.

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New Zealand’s Prime Minister  has been forced to apologize after making a joke about a child abusing murderer who fled to Chile and then to Brazil  last week. (read John Key’s killer paedophile joke disgusts victims’ family, 12/11/14 Stuff.co.nz)

Flaxmere teacher guilty of assault:

A jury took nearly six hours to find a teacher guilty of assaulting children in his class.

Hastings teacher Trevor Apihai, 45, was found guilty of four charges and not guilty of six charges at the end of a four-day trial in Napier District Court yesterday.

He was accused of pinching, hitting and dragging children by their clothes and arms while teaching at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ngati Kahungunu ki Heretaunga in Flaxmere between July and November last year…read on