Boys treated like slaves, court told

Two Coromandel boys were beaten, abused and treated like slaves for almost a year by their caregivers, the Hamilton District Court heard yesterday.

Keith William Baker, aged 47, unemployed, and his wife, Susan Rawiana Baker, 44, a mother, both of Manaia, south of Coromandel, face two charges each of wilful ill-treatment of a child.

Keith Baker also faces six charges of assault on a child and two of threatening to kill. Susan Baker also faces four counts of assault on a child.

The charges relate to a period from January to November 1998, when the two boys, then aged 6 and 13, were under the Bakers' care.

Crown prosecutor Louella Dunn told the court that the boys had been used to do household work for the Bakers' family of 10, and had been abused if they did not perform.

She said the older boy was enrolled in Correspondence School, but spent his day cleaning and looking after the Bakers' grandchildren.

"These two boys were treated as little more than slaves," said Louella Dunn.

In testimony via closed-circuit television, the older boy said Keith Baker regularly punched, slapped and abused him.

His leg was cut open when he was thrown to the ground by Keith Baker for cooking too much porridge for breakfast.

The boy said he suffered two black eyes in another assault.

He said Susan Baker applied car grease and spider cobwebs to his leg wound to stop it bleeding. She always tried to stop Keith Baker from hitting him.

Both boys were made to do push-ups and sit-ups in front of Keith Baker, who would beat them if he felt they were slacking.

The older boy eventually escaped from the Bakers' home after pretending to shower and climbing out of the bathroom window.

He ran to a relative's home and police were alerted.

The trial, before Judge Tony Christiansen, is expected to last three days.