Duncan Garner has opened up on his painful experience covering the death of baby Moko Rangitoheriri, and told the story of the funeral home worker who was his undertaker.
Little Moko was battered to death by his caregivers in August 2015. Tania Shailer and David Haerewa are already 18 months into their 17-year prison terms for the hideous beating of the toddler.
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But The AM Show host Garner says that's not enough, and expressed sadness that prosecutors settled for a plea deal that saw them jailed for manslaughter rather than murder.
"Moko was viciously tortured - we know the story now - he eventually died a lonely, brutal, terrifying death. It was a case of two adults acting like animals, basically, over a period of weeks," he said in a live broadcast on Thursday morning.
"It should've been murder, but there was a plea bargain that did a deal on manslaughter, effectively. It felt wrong, 17 years inside for these two animals.
"They should never get out, [and] if they do it should be in a box. But they'll come out after 17 years of being fed and kept warm and all the rest of it."
Garner spoke briefly about getting to know Nicola Dally-Paki, Moko's mother, but then told a previously unheard story about a Taupō funeral home staffer called Chelsea, who was the baby's undertaker.
"[Chelsea] turned up [at hospital] and saw Moko lying in the bed, dead. She was in charge of Moko from that time onwards," he said.
"I spoke to Chelsea last year. She rang me to tell me her story. It was deeply upsetting - for 20 minutes I cried with her, at a private office here at Mediaworks.
"She held him all night at the funeral home. She wrapped him in a blanket and held him, and gave him the love that he didn't receive in the weeks and months earlier. She held him, she washed him, she looked after him.
"She rang to tell me that, and it broke my heart.
Garner said the Moko story was "really tough" to cover, to the point it had a real effect on his personal life.
"I actually moved out of the marital bedroom at the time, and went into a spare bedroom and lay there over a period of weeks," he said.
"It simply affected me that much."
Newshub.
