Many of the children killed in New Zealand die at the hands of a parent, step-parent or caregiver. Today the Herald speaks to a mother whose baby daughter was murdered after being tortured and abused by someone who should have kept her safe. Lisa Cassidy had no idea of the extent of the abuse to which baby Jyniah was being subjected.
A babysitter who tortured and murdered a baby almost two decades ago has become eligible for parole but admits she may have sabotaged her chance at an early release out of fear of re-entering the community.
Tiana Kapea subjected 10-month-old Jyniah Te Awa to a series of horrific acts when babysitting her, including putting her in a freezer, hanging her to a door by her T-shirt, holding her against a gas heater, and hanging her on a clothesline.
Then, in 2007, the infant sustained a fatal head injury from being kicked, thrown against a wall, shaken and smothered by Kapea.
Kapea, a relative of the family, initially denied the offending but later confessed to torturing Te Awa for much of her short life.
Tiana Mary-Anne Odessa Kapea was jailed for murdering Jyniah Te Awa in 2007. She was a relative and close friend of the baby's father Ike Te Awa.
In late 2008, she pleaded guilty to murder in the High Court at Auckland and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
It was a precedent-setting sentence at the time for a female offender convicted of child abuse.
Kapea became eligible for parole this year and made her first appearance before the New Zealand Parole Board last month.
The board’s decision, released to NZME today, stated that Kapea had made good progress behind bars.
She had completed a programme for violent offenders, worked in a painting crew for the last nine years, as well as being accepted for guided release outside of prison and into accommodation upon release.
However, despite not having a prison misconduct to her name since 2016, there was a misconduct finding against Kapea in January this year, only weeks out from the parole hearing.
While the details of the misconduct were redacted from the decision, it noted she was back working after a stand-down following the unspecified incident.
Jyniah Te Awa was murdered by Tiana Kapea in September 2007. Photo / Supplied
But it meant she was not eligible for the release to work programme for a further six months.
The decision stated that Kapea accepted that the recent misconduct may have been self-sabotage on her part because she was fearful of a release back into the community.
It did not specify what she was fearful of.
At Kapea’s sentencing in 2008, Justice John Hansen said the summary of facts made for “grim reading” and her offending was exacerbated by the abuse being carried out over a long period.
“Whatever remorse you advance, it will never answer the loss that they have suffered and continue to suffer for the rest of their lives,” Justice Hansen said.
At the time, a psychologist found Kapea had suffered significant abuse herself as a child and had PTSD and substance abuse issues as a result.
A psychological report from earlier this year reported that Kapea posed a low risk of committing future violence and said she was a trusted inmate doing well in her current unit.
Kapea told the board that she never used to talk about what was going on in her head, but treatment inside the prison had helped her communicate better.
“She spoke with some emotion today. She said she still does not know why she committed the offending that she did,” the decision said.
Other details of the decision looked at Kapea’s safety plan, an essential document that helps inmates identify potential risk situations for themselves when in the community, which included that she would not have unsupervised contact with a child under the age of 16.
However, she did not have an approved release proposal and remained an undue risk, resulting in the board declining her parole.
She will be seen by the board again later this year once her misconduct has cleared, making her eligible for reintegration programmes again.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
