Police give an update on the death of a Lower Hutt toddler.
Video / NZ Herald
One of the three people allegedly connected to the homicide of Ruthless-Empire Ahipene-Wall is already before the courts on multiple violence charges.
Ruthless-Empire died just days before his second birthday after being injured at a home in Taita, Lower Hutt last weekend.
He was taken to Hutt Hospital unresponsive on Sunday, with police saying he was injured up to 12 hours beforehand. A post-mortem examination showed he died from multiple blunt force traumas.
The toddler had lived at the home for a matter of weeks before his death.
Baby Ruthless-Empire died in hospital on Sunday. Photo / Vita Molyneux, Ngatanahira Reremoana
Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard said yesterday the level of violence against the toddler was “difficult to fathom”.
He confirmed there were three people inside the address at the time - and all three are people of interest.
One is a blood relative, and the other two are members of the extended whānau. One of the three appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court last month facing charges including common assault, aggravated assault and behaving threateningly.
There were also shoplifting charges and charges of breaching intensive supervision.
The Poole St house in Taita, Lower Hutt, where baby Ruthless-Empire lived. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Pritchard confirmed the people in the home were known to police and police were engaging with Oranga Tamariki to understand the context of Ruthless-Empire’s death.
“I would urge anyone with information to come forward and talk to police if they know what happened inside the property,” he said.
“We want justice.”
Sean Mason, Acting National Commissioner for Corrections expressed their condolences to Ruthless-Empire’s whānau, saying every child deserves a “safe loving home”.
“We echo police’s comment that any person with information should do the right thing and provide this information to police.
As you are aware, this is now a homicide inquiry. We do not want to compromise what is an active Police investigation and prevent any person from being held to account for this crime.
For this reason, it is not appropriate for us to provide further information at this stage.”
Ruthless-Empire’s wider family have told the Herald the toddler had a bright and bubbly personality, with his uncle Ngatanahira Reremoana saying he was “the soul” of the whānau.
His great-aunt Sarah Reremoana said Baby Ru was “the most vibrant, happy child”.
She had cared for him since his birth up until he moved to Hamilton to be with his mother in June and said he was a bright baby with a “beautiful voice and beautiful smile”.
His death had broken the family into “a billion pieces” she told the Herald.
She said she was “numb” after hearing what happened to the little boy.
“I probably had like 5000 decibels of a yell and a scream,” she said of the moment she found out he had suffered blunt force trauma.
“My hands just banged the table. He was just an innocent baby that did not deserve to be treated this way.”
She wanted those responsible to come forward and tell the truth.
“Our baby has suffered a lot of injuries. We’re angry but at this time our family would just like to think of our baby ... we just want to be worrying about loving him and kissing him and everything for him now.”
Her message to those responsible was: “Do the right thing”.
“We just want those people to walk into that place and tell the truth … we want them to be honest.”
The toddler’s mother was struggling to cope with his death, Reremoana said.
“She can’t even stand. She’s just as numb as us all.
“We’re trying to make sure that she’s got food, got everything ... we’re trying to make sure we love her and trying to let her process in her own way but she’s not coping.”
Reremoana also said New Zealand needed to do something to address child abuse.
“Child abuse needs to be sorted out ... For our baby, we’re going to make his legacy to try and stop this.”
Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.
