Kurariki back in trouble

Lorraine West says her son needs help. Photo / David West

The country's youngest convicted killer is back in trouble after allegedly punching his mum on Mother's Day.

Bailey Junior Kurariki, 21, has been charged with assaulting his mother Lorraine West at her South Auckland home on May 9. He is currently being held in custody for failing to answer the door at a bail check.

He appeared in the Manukau District Court last Tuesday.

Kurariki was 12 when he was one of six people involved in the killing of pizza delivery man Michael Choy in 2001.

He was jailed for seven years for Choy's manslaughter and released in May 2008, four months before the end of his sentence.

West told the Herald on Sunday Kurariki punched her as she celebrated Mother's Day with her daughters and his former girlfriend.

"He was just in a bad mood and he sort of pushed me," West said. "The day before we'd had his 21st. I made it a strict thing that there was no alcohol. I told his friends they were just to come and have a feed and see him get his 21st key. But I wanted no alcohol."

West said Kurariki "got a bit brassed off" the next day when he found out his mates went out drinking after the party.

"He banged on my TV. I told him to watch it and he told me to stop treating him like a baby.

"He did it again, then things just got out of control. He punched me in the arm."

West was not injured and said it was the first time her son had hit her.

"The funny thing is he says he's a man, yet the way he punched me, I didn't have a bruise. I think he wanted to punch me to get away. He knows I've been sick."

Kurariki's sister, who had been having a cup of coffee with West and the former girlfriend when the alleged assault happened, called the police.

West said the former girlfriend and Kurariki had been expecting a child together but West said she had talked the woman into having an abortion.

West said her son needed help. "He needs medication ... Sometimes when I'd come in from hanging the washing out he'd be standing there talking to himself. I'd click my fingers at him and yell: 'BJ, who are you talking to?' He'd go, 'the birds ... don't you hear the birds talking?'." West said Kurariki moved out of her home some time ago and now lived with his sister.

"I don't talk to him now. He's got to start growing up. He's 21 but he's still in a 12-year-old's [mind]. Me and his father have stopped going up [to court] and running around. We don't take him any money ... He's got to be a man."

West said her son's behaviour since his release from prison was a "let down".

He spent time in Mt Eden Prison earlier this year for wilfully damaging a television camera.

He has a raft of current charges against him, including breaching release conditions, common assault and male assaults female.