The mother of Taupo toddler Moko Rangitoheriri has spoken about his horrific death at the hands of the couple she’d entrusted with his care.
Nicola Dally-Paki told Story’s Duncan Garner that after Moko’s death, her eight-year-old daughter revealed she had tried to save her little brother.
“She told me that Moko was locked in the bathroom for two weeks. She’d tried to stay home from school to try and feed my son, ‘cos they were starving him,” she said.
Ms Dally-Paki says her daughter told her: “‘He wasn’t talking Mummy. I tried to tell David, and I told Tania he’s not talking and he needs to see the doctor, and they wouldn’t listen Mummy.’”
David Haerewa and Tania Shailer were supposed to be caring for Moko and his sister while their mother was in Starship Hospital with her eldest son.
Instead they violently abused the three-year-old for weeks before his death on August 10, 2015.
They pleaded guilty to manslaughter after the charges were downgraded from murder.
Haerewa admitted to police that he continually assaulted Moko, especially over the four days prior to his death. He said he would put the boy in the bathroom for hours on his own.
He also admitted to slapping, kicking and stomping on the toddler, and rubbing faeces in his face.
According to the summary of facts, Shailer inflicted the main injuries that killed Moko when she stomped on his stomach and abdomen.
Watch Duncan Garner’s full interview with Nicola Dally-Paki on Story tonight at 7pm.
