MP tackles claim over baby abuse

Tracey Lee Sutherland

National is questioning how Children, Youth and Family Minister Ruth Dyson could claim a mother who beat her baby into a vegetative state had no history of physical abuse when a CYF report says she'd given another child a black eye.

The report investigated the case of Baby J, whose Tauranga mother, Tracey Lee Sutherland, is now serving a six-year sentence for the assault which left her son permanently brain-damaged.

CYF had previously removed Baby J's half-siblings from Sutherland's care on the basis of neglect - a 2-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl.

A second report obtained by National MP Katherine Rich said that the boy had weighed only 8.8kg, had gained no weight in six months and his hair was falling out. The girl was so hungry she was eating toothpaste.

Ms Dyson was asked in Parliament by Mrs Rich in 2004 why CYF had not taken Baby J from the mother when it had already removed the two other children from her care.

Ms Dyson responded that "the mother did not have a history of either physical or sexual abuse."

The CYF report into the management of the case also defends the department's actions, finding the "violent assault was unable to be predicted, based on the information available at the time".

Chief Social Worker Marie Connolly said in a media statement the risk was instead assessed as being one of "potentially serious neglect" and social workers were "diligent" in putting precautionary measures in place.

The report reasserts Ms Dyson's claim that there was no history of physical abuse, yet it states this is "despite the incident relating to J's elder half-sibling when J's mother either smacked him or threw a telephone at him causing him to fall on a chair and sustain a black eye."

Mrs Rich said yesterday that both this incident and the treatment of the elder siblings constituted abuse.

"How can she think that the slow starvation of a toddler, who at 20 months couldn't walk or smile and was the average weight of a Kiwi 6-month-old baby, is not physical abuse?"

Ms Dyson was clinging to "very narrow definitions of what constitutes physical abuse" and making artificial distinctions, Mrs Rich said.

"The minister fails to understand that abusive parenting is not softball. It shouldn't have to be three strikes and you're out.

"One of the problems I think CYF [has] is that many social workers see so many cases they become desensitised to situations. So the threshold for interventions is set too high."

While the report backed CYF, "the point is you can stick to the law, stick to procedure and still make a dumb decision with disastrous consequences. And it's just not fair to say to Baby J, 'We followed procedure, that's it'."

Ms Dyson told the Herald on Sunday she was satisfied CYF had followed the procedures and rules. She could not be reached yesterday.