Murdered boy endured final weeks of torture

Duwayne Pailegutu. Photo / Supplied

The full story behind the sickening abuse and murder of a 7-year-old boy has been revealed for the first time in court documents.

One expert has called the killing of Duwayne Pailegutu by his stepfather, Johnny Pukerua Joachim, "systematic torture" comparable to that suffered by Rotorua toddler Nia Glassie.

For the seven days before Duwayne Pailegutu died, he was kept inside his mother and stepfather's small flat in Nelson - so no one could see he had been beaten so badly he was paralysed, incontinent, and slowly suffocating on his own blood.

The left side of his body was disabled after repeated blows to the right side of his head which caused a stroke, and he struggled to eat or drink.

In addition to the haemorrhage, an autopsy found at least 10 deep bruises to his scalp - some of them inflicted by the shoes of his stepfather as the little boy cowered in the corner of his Fergusson St bedroom.

A further 75 bruises were found over the rest of his small body.

Duwayne, whose family members in Mangere say was a happy and energetic child before he moved to Nelson with his mother and stepfather in December 2007, was hit, kicked, thrown at walls and struck repeatedly on the soles of his feet with a cricket wicket by Joachim, 37, in what was to be the most violent assault of many he suffered, one week before he died.

Duwayne's mother Mary Joachim, 28, was sentenced in the Auckland District Court on Thursday to three years in prison for failing to provide her son with the necessaries of life for watching the assaults and not getting medical attention. She is appealing against her sentence.

Johnny Joachim is serving an 18-year, non-parole sentence after admitting Duwayne's murder.

For the week before he died,Duwayne sat, partially paralysed and fitted with nappies, slowly suffocating on blood which he inhaled into his lungs as he vomited during "exercises" in which his stepfather made repeated blows to his stomach to make him cough up blood.

In an attempt to "shock" Duwayne into movement, Joachim dipped his paralysed foot into boiling water, leaving the largest of four scald wounds on his right leg.

When he became frustrated that Duwayne could not move, Joachim threw him against a wall.

And for the six weeks before his death on July 2 last year, Duwayne had been living with three broken ribs.

During this time, he had attended school - but only when the bruises and injuries weren't obvious enough to give away the horrific abuse.

Duwayne's mother had lied to the school about her son's absence. She was afraid of seeking help because her husband, who had also been violent towards her, had threatened her.

Nelson CIB head Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne McCoy said of the nine child homicides he could think of in the Nelson Bays area, Duwayne's was the most horrific.

"He suffered for a week - that's the difference," he said.

"It was very traumatic for the staff that attended ... but they've got to put their professional face on - they can't look on in horror."

Liz Kinley, spokeswoman for child abuse and family violence prevention agency Jigsaw, said it was "systematic torture of a child" similar to that inflicted on Nia Glassie.