Teen pleads with court for baby's return

A woman accused of failing to provide the necessaries of life to her 6-week-old baby has pleaded with a court to get the child back.

"I do really love him and I would do anything to get him back," were the impassioned words of a 19-year-old Southland mother accused of neglecting her child in an Invercargill park last month.

Crying quietly in the dock of the Invercargill District Court, Rhianna Aimira Kahotea-Jones stood with her head bowed and her hand across her mouth as she listened to proceedings against her when she first appeared in court.

Kahotea-Jones can be named after she was denied name suppression in a High Court decision released yesterday.

She has been charged with neglecting her legal duty to provide necessaries for her 6-week-old son in a way that endangered his life.

The charges arose after an incident reported to police on August 15.

Police said they had been told Kahotea-Jones took the baby to the park on an extremely cold winter's day dressed only in light clothing.

They met up with her male partner's sister, who took the baby boy home, fed him, dressed him in warm clothes and put him to bed with an adult and an electric blanket to warm him up, police said.

While Kahotea-Jones did not enter a plea, the case has garnered significant public interest, which prompted Judge Dominic Flatley to deny an application for interim name suppression by Kahotea-Jones' defence lawyer Hugo Young when she first appeared in court on August 17.

"There's real public interest in this case, particularly in the current climate here in New Zealand," Judge Flatley said.

It seemed the accused had addiction problems and people had bent over backwards in the past to help her – help she had not taken up, he said.

Claims naming the mother would have an impact on the child were ridiculous because the baby was too young and no longer in his mother's care and the accused's family would suffer only the usual embarrassment, he said.

Those factors were not enough to warrant having her name suppressed, Judge Flatley said.

However, Mr Young said significant media attention on child welfare issues meant the case was likely to be tried in the media rather than the courtroom.

He appealed Judge Flatley's decision to the High Court, where it was heard by Justice John Fogarty on Tuesday.

In his decision released yesterday, Justice Fogarty indicates there was no clear reason for name suppression and he dismissed the appeal.

Mr Young's submissions supporting the appeal focused on the need for his client to have a fair trial, which he suggested might not happen if she were named and the trial were held in Invercargill.

Justice Fogarty said this could be overcome by applying to have the case heard in Dunedin or Christchurch.

Kahotea-Jones has been remanded to reappear in Invercargill on the charges on October 5.

- © Fairfax NZ News