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A father whose identity was kept secret throughout his trial and sentencing for beating his baby daughter to death can now be revealed as Vaila Sopo, 26, of Manurewa, Auckland.
Today’s name suppression lapse means 8-month-old victim Falute Vaila can also be named for the first time since her death at a South Auckland medical clinic. Next week will mark the second anniversary of her death.
Jurors in the High Court at Auckland found the defendant guilty of murder in March after watching a police interview in which the man admitted through a translator: “I’ve sinned. I murdered my daughter”. His lawyers had argued he didn’t know the proper legal definition of murder and he was instead guilty of manslaughter.
Justice Laura O’Gorman ordered a life sentence for Sopo last month with a stipulation he serve at least 17 years before he can begin to apply for parole.
Immediately after that suppression order lapsed with the guilty verdict, Justice O’Gorman allowed a new temporary suppression order based on an unrelated issue: to protect the defendant’s fair trial rights in Manukau District Court, where he was awaiting domestic violence charges. In light of the more serious murder conviction, however, prosecutors opted last month to withdraw the District Court allegations.
That should have allowed the defendant to be named at sentencing, but his lawyers filed a new last-minute permanent name suppression request based entirely on the original application: the alleged continuing extreme hardship for his overseas parents. The judge denied the request but gave the defence time to consider whether they would appeal. They have opted not to.
The defendant denied hurting his daughter while speaking to police on the night of her death. But in an hours-long follow-up police interview a week later, he admitted to slapping his daughter’s legs and hands out of anger because she had cried when he went into the room where she was sleeping. The two had never bonded and she acted cold towards him, he explained.
Vaila Sopo appears in the High Court at Auckland, where he was found guilty of murdering his infant daughter Falute Vaila in South Auckland in May 2022. Photo / Jason Oxenham
As the interview progressed, he admitted to pushing the baby’s stomach then eventually – after police showed him an autopsy photo of his daughter and read aloud her long list of injuries – admitted to punching his daughter four times with an estimated force of seven out of 10.
A demonstration of the blows appeared to show enough force to easily hurt an adult, with him putting his back into the pantomimed strikes.
The final blow, as he braced the infant’s head with one hand and punched with the other, perforated the child’s bowel. Left untreated, with only the defendant aware of what had occurred, the internal injury became fatal over the course of several days.
Defence lawyer Mark Williams described the child’s death during the trial as “tragic, unforgivable and unnecessary”. But his client never anticipated the blows could be fatal and so shouldn’t be found guilty of murder, he argued.
Prosecutor Chis Howard said the defendant, even if he didn’t mean to kill the child, was guilty of murder because he knowingly gambled with her life by administering such a severe beating. Jurors agreed.
Detective Inspector Warrick Adkin of Counties Manukau CIB issued a statement today immediately after name suppression lapsed. No conviction will bring back an innocent life lost, but the man responsible has been held to account, he noted, congratulating fellow investigators who “worked professionally to piece together the treatment that Falute suffered”.
“This is yet another tragic reminder to us all about being aware of the signs a child is suffering from abuse,” he said. “We all have a responsibility to look out for our youngest and most vulnerable members of society.
“It is important children who are being abused do not become invisible and those close to them become their voice by reporting the abuse”.
During last month’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors spoke out in opposition to both the permanent name suppression application and the defence request to have time to consider whether they would elevate the request to the Court of Appeal.
“The criminal justice system shouldn’t be held for ransom in this way,” Howard argued for the Crown, pointing out there was no new evidence to consider.
He noted that in the original “extreme hardship” suppression decision, the judge who authored it acknowledged it was almost inconceivable that the murder charge wouldn’t be known in the overseas village before the trial via means other than the media.
The public interest in knowing the name of the defendant and the victim only increases post-conviction, he added.
“It is unsatisfactory not to have the media free to cover sentencing in an open justice way,” Howard said, explaining that being able to name the victim “helps the issue resonate”. When allowed to be fully reported, “cases like this do effect change”, he argued.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
