Court documents have revealed the abuse and subsequent murder of 7-year-old Duwayne Pailegutu by his stepfather, Johnny Pukerua Joachim.
Duwayne Pailegutu (murdered): Photo credit NZHerald
Duwayne's mother Mary Joachim, 28, was on Thursday May 14th sentenced in the Auckland District Court to three years in prison for failing to provide her son with the necessaries of life and for watching the assaults and not getting medical attention. She is appealing against her sentence.
In their flat in Nelson, Fergusson St, (New Zealand), Duwayne suffered systematic torture that left the left side of his body 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 hemorrhage, an autopsy found at least 10 deep bruises to his scalp - some of them inflicted by the shoes of his stepfather and 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.
For the week before he died, Duwayne sat, partially paralyzed and fitted with nappies; since by this time he was incontinent, 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 paralyzed 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 2008, Duwayne had been living with three broken ribs.
Duwayne's step father is serving a 18-year prison term.
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NZHerald The case is similar to that of a 3-year-old toddler Nia Glassie who died in Starship Hospital on August 3, 2007, 12 days after being taken to Rotorua, (New Zealand) Hospital in a coma. The 3-year-old died of massive bleeding between her skull and brain.
According to the testimonies given in the court, Nia suffered months of misery. She was kicked in the head, beaten, slapped, jumped on, held over burning fire, put in a clothes drier which was turned on at top speed for 30 minutes, folded into a sofa and sat on, shoved into a pile of rubbish, dragged through a sandpit half naked, flung against a wall, dropped from a height onto the floor had wrestling moves performed on her and was flung off a clothes line. She was taken to hospital 36 hours after lapsing into a coma and the mother continued clubbing as Nia lay dying in the hospital.
Nia's mother, Lisa Kuka, 35, Lisa’s partner Wiremu Curtis, 19, Wiremu’s brother, Michael Curtis, 22, Nia's cousin Michael Pearson, 20 and Michael Curtis' partner Oriwa Kemp, 18, are serving different jail terms for their involvement in the murder.
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