Mum jailed for ignoring daughters' abuse

File photo / NZ Herald

In a legal first, a Hastings mother has been jailed for a year for failing to protect her daughters after they told her partner had been sexually abusing them.

The 44-year-old woman was sentenced at the Napier District Court after being found guilty last month of neglecting a child under 16.

The charges related to both of her daughters who were offended against by the woman's partner - the biological father of the younger girl, Fairfax Media reported.

The youngest daughter, then aged nine, told her mother her father had been sexually abusing her for four years. A few months later her father was investigated by police after she told a teacher.

But her mother told police the girl was lying.

Police contacted the girl's older sister, who was then 22, who told them their father had sexually abused her twice a week for three years when she was aged between eight and 11.

The abuse happened when she slept in the same bed as the man and her mother, but when she told her mother she was sent to live elsewhere.

The man was jailed for 15 years last October after a jury found him guilty of rape, indecent assault, indecent acts and unlawful sexual connection with a girl under 12.

In yesterday's hearing, neither Judge Tony Adeane, the woman's lawyer Eric Forster nor the Crown said they could not find any similar cases in New Zealand.

Mr Forster said it was well known that sexual offenders were capable of a great degree of manipulation

Crown lawyer Clayton Walker said it appeared the woman was willing to allow the abuse to continue simply to preserve her relationship with the man.

Judge Adeane pointed to the introduction of changes to the Crimes Amendment Bill in Parliament this week, which would see the maximum penalty for wilful ill-treatment or neglect of children rise from five years' jail to 10 years.

- NZPA