OPINION: Step in earlier to protect children

HISTORY REPEATS: It's one thing to march in honour of Moko and to protest child abuse -- but, in these cases, family members need to be stepping in early.

I normally approach life with a fairly light hearted view.

But today I need to get something serious off my chest. Something we have all been talking about and struggling to find the answers to.

I refer to the tragic death of little Moko. I, along with the rest of the country, watched in anger as the news broke and thought, "here we go again". What those two...things did to him is beyond belief. Animals would not do that to one of their own. I suspect it is only human beings that would inflict such horror on each other.

I was also angered when I heard the prosecution and defence teams had negotiated a plea bargain for manslaughter. This enraged the nation. However, I wanted to understand more what this plea bargain meant and I now think it was a good move.

With a murder charge, the prosecution has to prove that they set out to kill Moko.

With manslaughter, prosecution has to prove that the defendants knew their actions could have resulted in the Moko's death. Because they have pleaded guilty to that charge, there is no longer any need for a long, drawn-out trial.

With the defendants pleading guilty to manslaughter, the chief witness, Moko's eight year-old-sister, has been spared the ordeal of a trial. The trauma this little girl has been through will haunt her forever, and to having to relive it all through a trial would be cruel.

It is now up to the judge to impose a fitting penalty on Moko's killers. And we will all be watching with great interest.

But there is something else that has disturbed me. On TV, we saw a march for Moko and his grandmother was there, crying and saying to the camera that this must never happen again.

Well Grandma, we said the same thing with Lillybing. And the Kahui twins. And Nia Glassie. In fact we have said the same thing for all 61 Kiwi children that have died at the hands of an adult in the last 10 years.

The one place that a child should feel safe is with their family in their own home.

I know you are grieving, Grandma -- but where was your family? Moko was abused for months by these people. Did not one family member visit him in all that time? Did not one family member talk to his sister in all that time? She had told other people what was happening.

You can walk through the city with the others "marching for Moko", but it's too late. Your family should have supported him while he was alive.

I can't fix the problem. The government can't fix the problem. But Moko's family could have.