Police say injured girl file still open

By HELEN TUNNAH


Police could still charge a person with harming a 5-year-old girl who a doctor said had a severe head injury as though she had been in a car crash.

Inspector Doug Brew told the Weekend Herald the file involving allegations that the girl had been abused remained open. Charges would be laid if enough evidence was uncovered to prove abuse.

A furore surrounding the girl's case erupted in Parliament this week after it was revealed that her mother and her mother's partner had escaped a jail sentence after pleading guilty to wilfully ill-treating her.

They had failed to get her medical help even though she had suffered a severe head injury, and days later could not stand or feel her legs.

The extent of the injury was revealed months later, when a grandmother took the girl to hospital.

Cassandra Edwards, 31, and Bruce Potaka, 26, were sentenced to community work. The charge carries a maximum jail term of five years.

The two initially denied the charge, but changed their plea to guilty after their lawyers were told by Wanganui's Crown prosecutor that a jail term would not be sought.

An appeal against the community sentence was being prepared when the defence lawyers pointed out that the two accused had relied on the Crown's word before they decided to admit the neglect.

The Crown Law Office said yesterday that that meant the sentence could not be appealed. But it said it believed jail was an appropriate sentence for wilful neglect.

National MP Paul Hutchison said the prosecutor's commitment not to press for a prison term was "extraordinary".


Mr Brew said all the information about the girl's injuries and her emotional and psychological problems had been available to the sentencing judge.

There was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with causing the injury, he told Mr Hutchison in a letter.

In court in June, paediatrician Teuila Percival said the girl had suffered the type of injury seen in children "who are unrestrained in motor vehicle crashes".

"She is very lucky to be alive."