Minister shares dad's anger over abuse in CYF care

Ruth Dyson

Child Youth and Family Minister Ruth Dyson says she shares the disgust and anger of a father whose children were abused in the department's care.

The two young girls were taken from their parents by Child, Youth and Family (CYF) and placed with a man who sexually abused them -- even though the service was warned he was not a suitable caregiver.

"It is unacceptable that any child in New Zealand society is sexually abused let alone a child that has been placed in the care of Child Youth and Family Services," Ms Dyson told National Radio today.

"I absolutely share his disgust about what has happened to his children."

Ms Dyson repeated an assurance the children had been removed from danger.

Yesterday Ms Dyson said she was seeking investigations into allegations of abuse and processes for choosing caregivers.

CYF was being asked to report back detailing what allegations they had before placing the children and how they responded to allegations. It is also being asked what led them to conclude the children were safe with the caregiver and to look at procedures around caregivers to ensure lessons are learned for the future.

Ms Dyson said: "The department will be accountable for the actions. Placing children with caregivers is a fundamental responsibility of the department and we must ensure that when those children are placed it is done within the absolute proper procedures and those procedures are rigorous."

She would not speculate on the outcome of the report but said when thousands of children went through CYF every year "incidents such as this are extremely rare".

A CYF spokeswoman said the department did not generally comment on individual cases but she confirmed the children were removed from their home because of "care and protection issues".

The report said that before the children were placed with the man, their parents and a priest who knew him told CYF he was not an appropriate person to look after children.

The children's father, named only as Malcolm, told National Radio today he could not believe what had happened to the children -- which included inappropriate video-taping.

"They (CYF) pretty much didn't believe us, they'd done their background checks and everything was up to their standards," he said.

He did not believe CYF had done proper checks and felt his motivation making the allegations was doubted.

Malcom had told CYF the man spent a lot of time looking at internet porn and had gambling and drinking problems.

CYF told Malcolm at its Papakura office about the alleged abuse about a month after it was discovered.

"It's just been surreal. I just couldn't get it through my head that this had actually happened until I read the police report -- that's when it hit me like a tonne of bricks."

Malcolm wants the CYF staff who made the decision to put the children in the man's care sacked.

National Party welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins said the man was living near a childcare centre.

"Frankly, I'm concerned he's still in the community," she said.

Police were deciding what charges to lay.

- NZPA