Police investigating the death of Baby Ru in the Hutt Valley three years ago have made arrests.
The little boy died in hospital on October 2023 from critical injuries, two days short of his second birthday.
A 28-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man have been arrested and charged with perverting the course of justice.
The man was due to appear in Hutt Valley District Court today, while the woman is due to appear on Thursday 12 November.
Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard says the arrests are welcome news.
“We have never stopped working to determine what happened here and get justice for Ru and his whanau.
“Baby Ru’s death was a senseless tragedy, and it is a relief to have made progress in this case,” he says.
The investigation is ongoing and further charges are likely.
That child never had a chance. That he was ever left with his mother and her friends shows a complete lack of common sense by the workers at Child Protection or whatever name it is called by now.
People who harm children are hardly charged, but the people who put then in harms way as the officials did in this case, should also be charged.
It is as Michael Laws said about the total lack of accountability when discussing the fraud committed at RNZ. These people in government positions are paid huge salaries from taxpayer money and yet when things go wrong, there is no accountability. The New Zealand public are still waiting for the CEO at the Mt Maunganui camp site where a landslide killed 6 people to resign. So far – nothing.
Children die almost on a regular basis in this country – all of them known to the authorities. There is a huge organisation supposedly looking after the welfare of these little ones yet the employees of said organisation are seemingly incapable of either seeing the danger signals or of doing anything about it.