The final fear-filled days of a tormented child

ALISON HORWOOD chronicles how the little girl known as Lillybing came to the end of her short life.

Thursday July 20, 2000, was the beginning of the end for Lillybing. It was housie night at Masterton East School and Lillybing's mother, Terina Matiaha, aged 23, and Matiaha's mother, Josephine Matiaha, were regulars.

Earlier that day Lillybing's 9-month-old younger sister had been admitted to Masterton Hospital with diarrhoea and dehydration. Terina Matiaha would spend the next two nights at her hospital bedside, sneaking out that evening to call the numbers at housie.

She was concentrating on the new baby, and Lillybing - christened Hinewaoriki Karaitiana-Matiaha but nicknamed after an aunty Lily - was spending more and more time with Matiaha's step-sister, Rachaelle Namana, then aged 27.

Often Lillybing would be dropped off on a Thursday and not picked up until Saturday.

On that Thursday Namana was not keen to have her. She had four children of her own and was heavily pregnant with another.

Namana told a friend that Terina Matiaha was a useless mother and she was sick of providing food and nappies for Lillybing when her own resources were so stretched.

But she reluctantly agreed to take Lillybing until the baby was out of hospital. Josephine would look after Lillybing's older brother, then aged 3.

So that afternoon, Josephine Matiaha dropped Lillybing off at the run-down weatherboard home in semi-rural Charles St, Carterton, that Namana shared with her partner, David Hemopo - the unemployed father of her children.

The Hemopo-Namana children, aged between 2 and 8, were rarely seen playing outside the house. Two rusting car wrecks - one full of fetid rubbish and nappies - took pride of place on the lawn.

The children were described as unworldly kids, who just didn't get much stimulation.

Hemopo was seen as a loving father and his relationship with Namana seemed solid in an environment in which it was commonplace for men to come and go.

The couple's first-born child was given up for adoption because Hemopo questioned its paternity, but was later taken back.

Little Lillybing lived mostly in Masterton with her mother, grandmother and four of her aunts and uncles, aged between 10 and 18. Her father, Joshua Karaitiana, was 17 when she was born and had fathered her older brother when he was 14.

When Terina Matiaha was asked in court where Karaitiana was these days, she replied, "Wellington, I think."

Terina Matiaha's first-born was given to her mother to bring up. Namana, helped by her blood-sister, Rongomai Paewai, a then-26-year-old beneficiary and mother, took over a lot of the upbringing of Lillybing, and even Terina Matiaha referred to her step-sister as the toddler's second mother.

It was Namana who breastfed Lillybing as an infant and taught her to walk.

The day she arrived at Namana's, Lillybing seemed to be in good health.

Only two weeks short of her second birthday, the cherubic-looking girl appeared to be suffering only nappy rash, a cut between her toes and a few bumps and bruises. Neither she, nor her cousins at Charles St, were known to the Child, Youth and Family Services.

She spent the night, as usual, sleeping in Namana and Hemopo's shabby bedroom.

On the Friday morning, Namana and Paewai took Lillybing and their own children to the Nga Waka Te Kohanga Reo in Carterton. They both worked there as administrators and Lillybing and their own children attended.

The preschool had recently changed hands and the sisters were working hard to bring it up to national safety guidelines for re-opening on the following Monday.

Joanne Brown, who had children at the kohanga, described Lillybing that morning as "a mess" with "shit all down her legs."

It was a cold and rainy day and Lillybing's bare feet were pinky-purple with the cold and her nose was snotty.

Brown describes the toddler as a slow child developmentally. "She always had a sad look on her face, she had no spirit, no life. It was obvious she was being neglected. She just wasn't taken notice of."

A relative called her "woebegone" and a child who wasn't getting enough cuddles. Lillybing often played alone and was teased by the other children for being smelly.

She didn't cry much, but didn't talk much either. One of the few words in her vocabulary was "aunty."

She fretted at night for Namana and not her birth mother, but also looked wary in Namana's company, according to some evidence.

Alison Poulsen, a friend of Namana's, remembers Namana moving Lillybing around on the couch and having to tell her, "relax Lillybing, don't look so worried."

Lillybing's older brother hated being with Namana and would cry and "shit himself" if he went to Charles St, according to evidence.

Namana told Brown that day that she was looking after Lillybing because Terina Matiaha's baby was sick.

"I said to Rachaelle 'I don't think you should have Lillybing' because she already had four children of her own to worry about, plus she was pregnant, and did work here at kohanga.

"She was 100 per cent an hour, doing everything. I just didn't think she had it in her," Brown would later tell the court.

She planned to approach Namana on the next Monday and ask her if she needed some help.

Brown said Lillybing and her older brother were the only children dropped off at kohanga without lunch.

On that day Brown, who had the flu, tried to change Lillybing's nappies. But the smell was making her retch, so a 13-year-old female relative took over.

The girl used a flannel to clean faeces smeared between Lillybing's torso and knees but did not notice any genital injuries.

Later that evening, Namana, Lillybing, the 13-year-old girl and another cousin returned to the kohanga to make murals and continue getting it ready.

About 8 pm, Namana took Lillybing into the toilets to begin toilet-training. Evidence was given she had run out of nappies.

When the toddler could not get on to the steps leading up to the adult-sized toilet, Namana smacked her legs about five times.

"Lillybing was trying to get up on the steps, but she couldn't. Every time she couldn't, Rachaelle would hit her," said the 13-year-old witness.

Lillybing started to cry, but Namana told her to be quiet. When asked in court whether the toddler stopped crying, the witness said: "Yeah. She just holded it in."

Namana then picked up Lillybing and put her bare bottom on the adult toilet. When the witness went looking for her about three hours later, she found her still sitting there, clinging on to the sides with her legs so she didn't fall.

When asked in court how she looked, she said: "Sad."

Namana then took Lillybing into her office and made her practise getting up and down some steps, hitting her each time she failed.

Namana later told Elizabeth Taylor, the hotel manager at the local Royal Oak Tavern where she and Hemopo were regulars, that Lillybing was "punch drunk," "away with the fairies" and kept falling down that day.

On Saturday, Namana and Paewai returned to the kohanga to paint the fence, taking Lillybing with them.

Paewai said in a statement that Lillybing fell over at least twice that day, but picked herself up.

Lillybing was falling down a lot and had a big bump on her head, Namana told Taylor. She never cried when she hurt herself but Namana said she was starting to get worried because she was constantly tired, and seemed to be having trouble walking.

She took her back to Charles St, put her to bed and put some Savlon on her head.

When Taylor asked whether she realised something might be dreadfully wrong, Namana replied, "If you knew Lillybing there was always something wrong with her."

Some time that morning, the police say Namana was changing Lillybing's nappy and she noticed the toddler was bleeding from her vagina.

Paewai also changed her later that day and called out, "look at her tero [vagina], sister."

According to the police summary of facts read to the High Court at Wellington yesterday: "Lillybing's vagina had, in fact, suffered recent traumatic penetration, resulting in a vaginal vault laceration and intra-peritoneal haemorrhage. Both the accused knew something serious had occurred recently but were scared of the consequences of bringing the injury to the attention of medical people."

Crown prosecutor Grant Burston said during the preliminary hearing the sisters may have been protecting a relative who had sexually violated Lillybing.

Later that morning, Namana, Paewai and Lillybing returned to kohanga.

The sisters said that as they left the house, the little girl tripped down the stairs, hitting the concrete path and hurting her head. Blood was later found in the kohanga van.

Once at the preschool, Lillybing fell again, although Burston pointed out, "it may well have been injuries that were contributing to these falls."

On at least two occasions that afternoon, Lillybing lost consciousness at the kohanga, according to the police summary of facts.

The swelling on her head was seen by Namana's partner Hemopo, who later described it as "a large ugly egg on her forehead."

The sisters applied a boiling hot cloth to Lillybing's forehead as a compress.

"Instead of seeking medical attention, they applied a hot compress, which medical experts agreed would have been an excruciating experience resulting in a thermal scald, removing the top layer of skin," Burston said at the preliminary hearing.

"The Crown says this bizarre and cruel act was committed by two caregivers who did not want to take her to a doctor for fear of the discovery of the vaginal injury."

Namana and Paewai had completed a first-aid course two months earlier in readiness for the opening of the kohanga, but the hot compress was at odds with what they had learned.

About 5 pm, Namana and Paewai took Lillybing back to Charles St. At 7.30 pm, Terina Matiaha arrived to pick up Lillybing.

She was told the little girl was asleep in bed and didn't have any dinner. "How is she?" she asked.

"Good," said Namana. "Just leave her, I'll bring her back later." They arranged to meet at the Royal Oak, where Hemopo's band, Fubar, was playing.

Lillybing was put to bed in Namana and Hemopo's room, which had the framed first-aid certificate hanging nearby.

And despite Lillybing's deteriorating condition, Namana and Paewai later took turns going to the pub and coming home to check the little girl and take her pulse, the court heard.

Terina Matiaha, whose baby had been released from hospital that day, was also at the pub that night. She was the last to leave, at 2.45 am, when Taylor asked her to go.

On Sunday, Hemopo got up at 8 am and fed the children. He noticed the haematoma on Lillybing's head was now dark and obvious. But he continued with his plans to return some band equipment to Masterton.

That afternoon, Namana and Paewai held an 8th birthday party for Namana's daughter. By this stage, Lillybing could barely stand and Hemopo sat her down on the floor.

The toddler was whingeing and had a dark mask-like appearance to her upper face, similar to a grass-burn. She refused to eat the cheerios and chippies the other children at the party were eating and sought refuge behind the lounge furniture.

Namana later told someone how she "took a crust of bread and scurried behind the couch to nibble on it."

The other children went outside to play, but Lillybing could only crawl and was given a trike to hold on to keep her upright.

Visitor James Taylor remembers seeing six or seven children running around shooting water pistols. Despite it being mid-winter, the baby of the group - Lillybing - was naked except for a nappy and was trying to keep up.

"The most outstanding thing about the baby was its face. It was scabby and sore-looking around his nose and lips," he said.

His girlfriend, Charlotte Skinner, said: "Her face was unusual. It was a reddy-apricot colour, raw looking like a blister with scabs all over it."

It appears Lillybing picked at her last meal late that afternoon, which was noodles. There were no clean nappies so she spent some time sitting on newspaper on the lounge floor.

About the same time, Namana got angry at Lillybing, according to the police summary of facts presented in court yesterday.

"Namana shook Lillybing in a violent manner causing a major cerebral injury, which was the direct cause of the death of Lillybing."

The brain injury was consistent with a 6m fall on to her head. Lillybing also suffered a severe abdominal bruise that occurred around the same time as the fatal shake.

Namana later told bar manager Elizabeth Taylor that Lillybing fell down early that evening for the last time. When she did not get up, Namana put iodine on her head and put her to bed in the sitting room.

Elizabeth Taylor asked Namana why she did not take Lillybing to hospital. Namana told her she didn't need to because she was still alive.

Paewai said to police in one of her statements that the protocol at kohanga was that if the injuries were serious enough, the child would go a doctor or hospital.

The sisters checked Lillybing a couple of times, putting ice on her head because she was "burning up." The ice stuck, and when they removed it some of her skin came off.

Paewai then apparently put iodine on it. Lillybing still did not wake up. It was between 6 pm and 7 pm and the indications were that Lillybing was already dead.

When they went back into the sitting room a short time later the tot was cold. Hemopo told them to take her to hospital but they ignored his advice. Namana told Elizabeth Taylor they massaged Lillybing's legs because they felt stiff and needed warming up. She said they could still feel a pulse.

At one stage they tried to wake her and prop her up in a chair.

Hemopo went out to a party. When he got home, he told them again to seek medical help, then went to sleep about 9.30 pm.

About the same time, Namana also went out, stopping in on Terina Matiaha, telling her she was on her way to get a first-aid kit because "a friend had been given a hiding."

She also told Terina Matiaha there was no kohanga on Monday because she and Paewai were tired after working all weekend.

Terina Matiaha asked Namana what she was going to do after picking up the first-aid kit and she said: "Get on the piss." Namana said she would return in half an hour and they could go to a party together.

Terina Matiaha asked how her little girl was, and Namana said Lillybing was good and had been doing well with toilet-training.

Namana left, and shortly afterward stopped in at the Mobil station in Carterton. "Hi, Rob, how's it going," she called out to the attendant.

He said in evidence that she seemed cool and calm, but in a bit of a hurry. All she bought was a packet of Horizon Menthol 25 cigarettes.

It was not until about 11 pm that Namana and Paewai bundled the dead toddler into the kohanga van and went to get help - stopping first at the Masterton home of a relative and rest-home caregiver, Cheryl Daley-Nooroa.

Daley-Nooroa was asleep on a mattress on the lounge floor when she woke to see Paewai standing in front of her. "Cousin, can you come and have a look at baby," she said.

Paewai was calm and showed no alarm. Daley-Nooroa asked Paewai what had happened, and she said Lillybing had fallen out of the van a couple of days earlier and hit her head. She told Paewai to get to hospital immediately.

Daley-Nooroa got into the back of the van and said Paewai drove while Namana held Lillybing on her knee in the front passenger seat.

"Lillybing was sitting up straight on cousin Rachaelle's lap and she was rubbing her back," Daley-Nooroa said in evidence. She noticed a rash on the baby's face. Paewai said the baby was cold.

Within a few minutes, they arrived at Masterton Hospital and rang the buzzer at the Accident and Emergency department.

The sisters told relieving house surgeon Dr Madhu Sudan Singh that he "needed to come immediately to see the baby." One of them said Lillybing had been falling over.

Singh looked at the little girl in the blue crawlers and multi-coloured trousers and knew it was already too late. In addition to a catalogue of obvious injuries, including the mask-like burn, rigor mortis had set in.

Paewai and Daley-Nooroa waited at the hospital and Namana went to get Josephine Matiaha. Standing sobbing on Josephine's doorstep, Namana told her: "I've come to take you to hospital because Lillybing's there."

When they returned to the hospital, Paewai told her, "Ka mate ia" (she is dead).

Josephine Matiaha persuaded the staff to let her see Lillybing. She was lying on her back, covered in a white hospital blanket from her chest down. Nothing prepared her for the shock.

"The skin on her forehead and cheeks was not there. It was red like the top layer of skin was missing. There was a dark black bruise on her forehead," she said in evidence.

She kissed her mokopuna all over and remembered the skin on her forehead feeling unusually soft.

It was then that she became angry. She yelled at her step-daughters: "What the fuck's going on. Why is her face like that?"

She asked Namana and Paewai why they took so long to bring her in. Paewai said: "Because we had our first-aid certificate and the manual right by the first aid kit."

The following day, Josephine Matiaha hugged her step-daughters and said the family would stand by them. That was until the autopsy results came through the following Tuesday night.

Forensic pathologist Dr Kenneth Thomson, the pathologist, concluded in his written evidence: "In my opinion [the fatal brain injury] was caused by severe shaking."

As well as Lillybing's swollen brain, Thomson noted a series of unrelated injuries, including internal haemorrhaging following a recent blow to the upper abdomen.

She had deep abrasions to the hands suggesting she had been tied or bound, her chin and lip were torn consistent with a blow or blows and she had severe bruising on the front of her head. There was also evidence of genital injuries that could have been several weeks old.

The little girl had more than 90 bruises and abrasions which, in post-mortem photos, covered her tiny body like the spots on a dog.

Even her tongue and the hood of her clitoris were not free from bruising.

Four of her baby teeth were loose and she had several fingerprint marks and a fingernail indentation on her scalp.

But perhaps most horrific was the genital mutilation, which doctors agreed was serious enough to kill her if the head injuries had not done so first.

Despite intensive investigations by police there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with her sexual violation.

Dr Dawn Elder, a paediatrician who assisted with the autopsy, said in written evidence: "The injury is a result of aggressive force behind a penetrating object which could have been a knife handle or finger or long cylindrical object, including a penis."

She said the genital injuries would have been sustained within 24 to 36 hours of her death.

Lillybing had internal haemorrhaging, including in her abdomen, bowel and hymen, and her vagina and peritoneum were torn.

The injury to the peritoneum, the multi-layered membrane that lines the abdominal cavity, would have eventually led to shock and death.

Plastic surgeon Dr Gary Duncan said in his written evidence the mask-like burn on Lillybing's face might have been caused by hot metal or a glutinous material.

The pain would have been severe, but would have settled reasonably quickly so she could have functioned normally for a time.

The burn had probably occurred at least 24 hours before Lillybing's death.

During the subsequent police investigation, both sisters remained tight-lipped about the injuries they had inflicted on their niece.

They had been set to go to trial this month, but yesterday in the High Court both Namana and Paewai admitted some part in the death of Lillybing.

Their confessions had taken almost a year - and in that time they had lost the custody of their own children, divided a family, and left Carterton without a much-needed kohanga.

Both women had spent much of the week-long preliminary hearing in the Masterton District Court in December writing notes, talking and rolling smokes, but yesterday Paewai's lawyer, Nigel Hewat, was keen to dispel the idea they were without remorse.

On behalf of his client, he said: "[Paewai] has lost a niece, she may go to prison and the family is in disarray."