When the girl was seen by a visitor three weeks later, her injuries were so bad she was airlifted to Middlemore Hospital burns unit. Photo: LDR / Stephen Forbes
Warning: This story contains details that may be upsetting for readers
A four-year-old girl was left with sustained burns to her body, including most of her face, for almost three weeks before she finally came to the attention of authorities and was admitted to the burns unit.
When she was finally taken to the hospital, doctors also discovered the girl's buttocks were raw from soiling herself in her bed because she was in so much pain, she could not get up to the toilet.
The girl's father - who cannot be named to protect the child's identity - is now on trial for neglecting a child under 18 after neither he nor his partner sought medical attention for the horrific injuries.
One witness has gone as far as to describe her injuries as "shocking" and said he felt sick after realising the extent of the burns.
The Crown opening by Ally Tupuola to the jury of eight men and four women at the Whangārei District Court was too much for one juror to bear and his attendance was excused, leaving a jury of 11 to decide the fate of the man before Judge John McDonald.
On 17 June 2022, the girl was burnt by hot water poured over her in the shower at the home she lived in with her mother and two siblings in Tikipunga.
It was not made clear in the trial who poured the water, however, the Crown alleges the father saw what happened, saw the child suffering and failed to get her any medical attention.
"This was not a minor burn to this four-year-old's body, it was severe. It happened right before his own eyes and he omitted, by choice, to get the help she needed.
"If you were watching all this happen what would you do?" Tupuola asked the jury.
The family were under the radar of Oranga Tamariki with the child and her siblings only recently returned to their mother.
Ngāti Hine Health Trust paid the family a visit on 6 July, almost three weeks after the injury was inflicted and on seeing the girl, immediately took her to Whangārei Hospital.
The girl suffered sustained burns to her face, eyelids, lips and from the chest to her belly button. They were so severe, she had to be airlifted to Middlemore Hospital burns unit two days later.
When the father was questioned by police he told them "It's not my f...... fault, I left straight away" and claimed he was in Broadwood in the Far North during that time period.
Defence lawyer Jarred Scott told the jury his client did not have care of the child, who lives with her mother, and therefore it was not his duty to provide assistance.
"What evidence if any suggests that he did have actual care?
"Not everyone who knows of the injuries is liable, it's only the people who had the actual care," Scott opened with.
However, when a friend of the family gave evidence this week, he said the father was definitely there between the injury and hospitalisation.
He said the girl's parents told him the child had been burnt but he did not realise how bad it was until he went upstairs to see her.
"It was shocking. When I seen the burns, it actually made me quite sick, the state she was in. He was there, every day," the Crown witness said.
The witness told the court the mother had only recently got the children back from Oranga Tamariki and their father was not allowed to see them but he would park his car down the road to avoid being caught at the address.
"I told them to take her to hospital but they said if they did, all their kids would get taken off them. She had just gotten her kids back and then this happened," he said.
A paediatrician specialist from the Whangārei Hospital said the mother had attempted to patch up the girl with sticky white tape in patches across her face which would have been exceptionally painful.
"She had exterior burns to her face and chest, scalding marks around her face, hairline and her skin had lost pigmentation and was pale and pink. Her skin was bright red and raw, she had burns to her upper sternum to her abdomen. She had white dressings applied to her cheek and forehead.
"Those are not dressings that could have been easily removed, they were sticky dressings," Dr Vicky Cunningham said.
Dr Cunningham said the hospital went to great lengths to understand what treatment the mother had attempted but her injuries were so severe, that had she been presented to the hospital at the time of injury, she would have required immediate transfer to the plastics unit at Middlemore Hospital.
"I don't expect any health professional would have referred [her] to outpatient care."
Cunningham also noticed the girl's growth had slowed since she was last seen two years prior and the raw exfoliation on her buttocks was a particular concern.
"Her mother (sic) offered an explanation that the skin was raw because (the girl) had been unwilling to get out of bed to go to the toilet and she was in soiled underwear, reluctant to move.
"She was soiled and in too much pain to get up and go to the toilet," Cunningham said.
The trial continues.
This story was first published by the New Zealand Herald.