Daughter outs child abuse TV frontman

By STAFF REPORTERS

The great-uncle of James Whakaruru, who pleaded in a television advertisement for an end to child abuse, has admitted that he was a wife beater and child abuser.

The case of James Whakaruru - who was beaten to death by his stepfather at the age of 4 - has been a symbol of the fight against child abuse since a report by the Office of the Commissioner for Children last year concluded that he had been let down by every agency that was supposed to protect him.

Now, in a blow to the Children First Foundation campaign run by former All Black Michael Jones and TVNZ newsreader Liz Gunn, James' great-uncle Rangi Whakaruru said he used to beat his stepdaughter, her mother and other family members.

He revealed that he had been abused himself and had received counselling for his violence problem.

TVNZ, which donated free air time, immediately pulled the advertisement, after a request from the Children First Foundation.

The foundation issued an apology last night. Jones said: "I have to apologise from our end. Maybe in our hastiness to get this going we haven't done enough of the groundwork."

Mr Whakaruru's stepdaughter, Jamila Dlala, said he should not appear in the emotional television ad "when he himself is an abuser."

"It's like putting Mike Tyson up there in a campaign against rape," she told TV3.

"The amount of times I watched my mother physically abused by this man. And what can you do - you just sit there as a little girl and cry."

Mr Whakaruru told the Herald: "I did hit Jamila. I was never convicted. There's a fine line between discipline and abuse."

He confirmed that he had been violent, but said he had undergone therapy and was in a happy relationship. He also revealed that his father had abused him.

"Our father was very, very abusive. His violence on our family went on and on for years. But I have managed to break the cycle."

He said he told public relations agency Core Communications, which donated its services to the campaign, about his history three days before the ads were shot.

In the ads, Mr Whakaruru stares into the camera, carrying the picture of a smiling James Whakaruru.

"Remember young James Whakaruru?" he asks. "He was a good kid ... He was beaten to death in his own home by people who cared for him."

When the ads were launched last month, Mr Whakaruru told the Herald, which is donating space for other foundation ads, he could remember at least 16 Christmases when a child in the family was suffering the effects of violence.

Liz Gunn said she believed that Mr Whakaruru's stepdaughter was trying to publicly humiliate him and that the allegations were part of a "major family squabble."

She and Jones had agreed to discuss the allegations with Jamila Dlala, including possibly pulling the ad, but instead she had gone to TV3.

"It's a terrible story of inter-generational abuse. I believe Rangi was genuine."

From the outset, Mr Whakaruru had said he could not be a trustee of the foundation, Gunn said, and she presumed it had something to do with violence in his past.

Jamila Dlala said through a friend, Blake Vlad, last night that she did not want to "damage anybody" but wanted Mr Whakaruru, her stepfather for 11 years, to admit past wrongdoing. She said the abuse lasted from 1987 to 1998.

Commissioner for Children Roger McClay said he believed Mr Whakaruru was no longer the right person to front the ads.

Jones said he was shocked last Friday to discover Mr Whakaruru's violent history.

Lisa Finucane, director of Core Communications, said she was aware Mr Whakaruru was "involved in something" but didn't know the details. "I think he did advise people of his past and he wasn't trying to hide it. Certainly I was aware he had something there but there was a communications breakdown of the details."