1990
Robert Harlem 19 months old. Died of injuries consistent with shaking, and internal injuries.
Graham Ross Sperry, jailed for his death.

1991
Delcelia Witika, two years old, bashed, burned, split appendix, left in her cot to die while her mother and her mother’s partner went partying.
Both were jailed for manslaughter.

1992
Craig Manukau, 11 years old. His mother tuned the radio volume up full, to drown out the noise while his father kicked him to death.

1994
Jordan Ashby, 3 years old. Found by baby sitters to have bruises and a black eye, that a doctor declared, were consistent with him having fallen from his bike, before Phillip Rakete, his mother’s boyfriend, beat him to death.

1994
Jeanette Rikihana, 5 months old, murdered by her father Soulan James Pownceby, an Olympic boxer. Her injuries included severe bruising to the head, including a cracked skull, and internal bruising. Pownceby was charged with murder, however the jury at his murder trial ruled that he was not guilty of murder but was guilty of manslaughter. Powceby was sentenced to four years in jail.

1995
Veronika Takerei-Mahu 11 months old, after CYF’s ignored claims of abuse, and social workers opted not to tell the court of the fears of a public health nurse, the child’s father, beat her to death.

1997
Jaydon Perrin, 10 months old. Died of massive head injuries while in the care of his mother Leanne, and her boyfriend Aron Vercoe. Both were charged with murder, but were acquitted.

1997
Tichena Crosland, 3 years old, was taken by CYF’s from the care of her mother Moana Whakamarurangi and given into the care of her father, David Crosland three months before she died of traumatic head injuries and with a badly damaged vagina. David Crosland was found guilty of murder, but not rape.

1999
James Whakaruru, 4 years old. After months of beatings and abuse, 7 visits to hospital in one year, 40 examinations medical professionals, he was finally punched and kicked to death by his mother’s boyfriend, Benny Haerewa who was out after having been found guilty of earlier attacks on the same child. Haerewa apparently carried out these beatings, at least on one occasion, in the presence of another child, who on command, handed him such instruments of torture as jug cords and vacuum cleaner pipes. Haewera was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

2000
Hinewaoriki (Lilly-Bing) Karatiana-Matiana, on her second birthday. Died in her cot from cerebral swelling after being shaken. She had bruising and lacerations to her genitals.
She was at the time, in the care of two of her aunts, while her mother was out partying.
Her two aunts were convicted and jailed.

2000
Mereana Edmonds, 6 years old. Beaten to death by her mother Belinda, and her lover Dorothy Tipene. She was found to have 3 very serious brain injuries, and 30 cuts, bruises and abrasions. Among her torment was being thrown into an outside shed for the night after wetting her bed.
Her mother was sentenced to 8 years, and her partner, for her part, just 27 months.

2000
Amber Grace Lundy, 7 years old, killed by her own father who repeatedly struck her on the back of the head with a tomahawk. Mark Lundy, a 43 year old salesman was convicted of Amber’s murder and also the murder of her mother Christine Lundy. Lundy was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years, which was later increased to 20 years following an unsuccessful appeal.

2001
Saliel Aplin 12 years old, and her half-sister, Olympia Aplin, 11 years old, killed in a knife attack by their stepfather. He was sentenced to 25 years, non-parole.

2003
Tamati Pokai, 3 years old, was beaten to death by his foster father after the child brought home a packet of jelly beans from kindergarten.

2003
Kelly Gush, 12 years old, was kicked to death by his mother’s partner after he vomited up his dinner.

2003
Coral-Ellen Burrows, 6 years old, who in spite of warnings to CYF’s by her birth father, was knocked unconscious, and beaten to death by her stepfather while driving her to school, because she said she didn’t want to go to school. He dumped her body.

2003
Rocky Wano, 15 came home for Christmas. His father angered at finding him drunk when called to pick him up from the local Marae, kicked him to death.

2004
Tangaroa Matiu was beaten to death with a fence paling by his stepfather, for soiling his pants. His mother denied strangling or choking him to death.

2005
An unidentified 2 year old boy (Identity suppressed) was thrown against walls, forced to eat dog faeces, beaten, suffered abuse and injuries consistent with violent abuse. Harley Wharewera, 19 was jailed for 10 years, and Jeremy Tawa, 23 was jailed for 2, after the beating of this tiny child. His mother, Jill Tania Tito, who knew what was happening was sentenced to 18 months jail. She will be out by now, and probably already a mother again.

2006
Ngatikaura Ngata, 3 years old, beaten to death with weapons for soiling his pants. His mother and stepfather were both sentenced to 8 years for manslaughter.

2006
Chris and Cru Kahui, tiny premature twin boys, just weeks old, but in otherwise reasonable health, killed by a person or persons as yet unknown. Raised in an overcrowded house with just one legitimate income. A place of drinking, drugs and fighting, everyone with one exception, supported by benefits.

2007
Jyniah Te Awa, 10 months old, killed by her baby sitter and family friend Tiana Kapea, who was in November, 2008, sentenced to 17 years.
Baby Jyniah was among other tortuous exposures, tossed into a deepfreeze as punishment for something unexplainable that only babies, less than a year old can be guilty of. She was also beaten and swung by her hair, and in similar fashion to another case on these pages, was hung on a line by her ‘T’ shirt.

2008
Nia Glassie, 3 years old, murdered by her mother’s boy friend and his brother.
Her mother, Lisa Kuka was found guilty of manslaughter and her boyfriend Wiremu Curtis and his brother Michael Curtis, were both found guilty of her murder.
Tiny Nia had been subjected to being thrown against a wall, pegged to a clothes line and having i swung until she flew off, being used to practice wrestling moves, such as being slammed and dropped on, and being placed in a rotary clothes drier with it turned on.

2008
Dylan Hohepa Tonga Rimoni 3 years old
Middlemore Hospital staff notified police on Wednesday that a child with unexplained head injuries had been brought to the hospital by ambulance late the previous night.
He was later transferred to Auckland’s Starship Hospital, where life support was turned off

AUGUST 20, 2009

A three-year-old Palmerston North girl dies from what's thought to be extensive, non-accidental head injuries at the local hospital. She was named today as Kash McKinnon.

AUGUST 11

A 17-month-old toddler from Kamo, Tinisha Walker, is flown to Starship with serious injuries, where she remains in a critical condition. Police were tight-lipped about who assaulted Tanisha but they were "talking with her family". Subsequently, a 39-year-old man is due to appear in the Whangarei District Court next month charged with assaulting her. He has name suppression.

AUGUST 8

A two-year-old Kaitaia girl, Jacqui Peterson-Davis, dies in Starship Hospital. Police confirm there are "bruises on her body" and head injuries but won't elaborate. A woman (name suppressed) in her early 30s is charged with assault, and more charges may follow.

The family of the woman, showing her full support, admit they are "struggling to come to terms" with the incident. It is then revealed that the little girl had been the subject of at least one CYFS notification during the months leading up to her death.

AUGUST 2

A four-month-old boy from Papakura is taken to Starship with "non-accidental brain injuries" and remains in a critical condition. His teenage parents are cooperating with police but the family home becomes the scene of further police investigation of other criminal activity. Neighbours describe the house as a "nonstop party house".

JULY 27

Foster carer Karen Alice Robinson stands trial in the Rotorua High Court for the murder of 14-month-old Melissa Sale in 2005. Melissa died of a traumatic brain injury and had extensive bruising on her face and at the back of her eyes. Robinson was convicted of manslaughter this month and will be sentenced in October.

JULY 22

Motueka mother Cassandra Albert, who gave her four-month-old baby severe brain damage by shaking him, is sentenced to three years and nine months. Albert and her partner Newton Samuel Moki were jointly charged with failing to provide the necessities of life after failing to get the boy help for nine hours during which he had seizures and profuse sweating.

JULY 15

Rotorua man Frank James Brown, who punched his 14-month-old at least twice in the head, is sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. The injuries put the child in hospital for three nights.

JUNE 29

A depositions hearing reveals that Kerikeri beneficiary Kyle Skerten is to stand trial for the murder of his 16-month-old stepson Riley Justin Osborne. Riley died after four days at Starship Hospital from his injuries - a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and eye injuries - so serious that a pediatrician told the court that he'd last seen the like when a child fell 11m on to bare concrete. Skerten will stand trial in September.

JUNE 15

The mother of a wheelchair-bound (then) eight-year-old appears in the Manukau District Court on assault charges. Some of the injuries inflicted on this boy include being beaten, burned with cigarettes, and starved. Two children still live with her. From the Herald, "[his] school found bruising and swelling around his genital area and he had blood-stained urine. Fears grew when the previously overweight boy lost around 25kg in a short period". [His] teacher claims the boy told her he sometimes was not given dinner or breakfast and was arriving at school teary, tired "and even lifting a pencil took great effort".

JUNE 5

One-year-old Trent Matthews is found dead in his family lounge in Rotorua. He had been taken from his mother soon after his birth and placed in the care of his uncle Joe Matthews. Matthews' partner Sasha Pene is charged with assaulting the boy.

MAY 14

Mary Joachim, 28, is sentenced to three years in the Auckland District Court for failing to provide the necessities of life to her son, seven-year-old Duwayne Pailegutu, who died in 2008 eight days after being savagely beaten by his step father Johnny Joachim. Duwayne was given a beating that left him partly paralysed and semi-conscious because he'd left a jumper at school. For several days afterwards he was unable to move and wore nappies because he was unable to get to the toilet he was in so much pain. According to the Herald report, "In an attempt to "shock" Duwayne into movement, Joachim dipped his paralysed foot into boiling water, leaving the largest of four scald wounds on his right leg. When he became frustrated that Duwayne could not move, Joachim threw him against a wall. And for the six weeks before his death on July 2 last year, Duwayne had been living with three broken ribs." His mother kept her son from school and misled the school about her son's whereabouts before he died in agony.

MARCH 7

JayRhis Ian te Koha Lock-Tata dies in Auckland's Starship Hospital after suffering severe head injuries - either having been beaten or having had his head knocked against something. His father Adam Christopher Lock, 22, is charged with his murder.

FEBRUARY 17

Three-year-old Cherishsiliala Tahuri-Wright, known as Cherish, is found injured and struggling to breathe by paramedics at her Marton home and later died at Palmerston North Hospital. A 56-year-old woman has been charged with her murder.