Woman sentenced over cruelty to her children

A woman was today ordered to undertake a parenting programme as part of her sentence of six months' home detention for cruelty to her children.

The woman, 33, had pleaded guilty to one charge of cruelty by wilful neglect midway through her trial in the High Court at Auckland.

The same trial resulted in her husband, 37, being jailed for two years and nine months for assaulting and neglecting their children.

The couple have name suppression, which was imposed to protect their eight children.

The woman's guilty plea came after her eldest daughter had given evidence, but Justice Geoffrey Venning today acknowledged that it meant the other complainants had not had to take the witness stand.

He also accepted that the woman had begun to put her life on track, having found a place to live and got a job.

But the judge noted that she believed the family unit could continue as before once her husband completed his jail sentence.

He said he could not make it plainer that it couldn't, and both she and her husband needed to change their attitude and realise what was required of them as parents.

One real concern in relation to the woman had been her apparent lack of understanding of the situation that she allowed to carry on in the home, Justice Venning said.

She had failed to protect the three eldest children in particular from the assaults that her husband dealt to them, he said.

The case came to the attention of authorities only when others, including teachers and Housing Corporation inspectors, took steps that the woman should have taken to address the problems.

During the trial, the couple's eldest daughter told the court that three men paid her father $40 to assault her sexually, but she later admitted that was a lie to get him into trouble.

The charge relating to that allegation was withdrawn.

In her victim impact report, the teenage girl said she liked where she was now living a lot more than when she was with her parents.

She said she didn't hate her mother, "I just don't have any feelings for her at all".