Two-year term for killing child

Press, 23 March 1985, Page 14

Two-year term for killing child

PA Auckland A solo mother, convicted of beating a child to death, has been jailed for two years. It was her second conviction involving gross illtreatment of a child. She had beaten the two-year-old who died in a “prolonged episode of sickening cruelty,” Mr Justice Vautier said.

Before him in the High Court at Auckland was Jacqueline Te Namu, aged 26, of Mangere. At her trial earlier this month she was acquitted of the murder of Kelder Hayden Matthews but found guilty of manslaughter. In sentencing her, his Honour said he accepted that at the time of the incident Te Namu had been in a state of hopelessness, depression, and frustration.

Her life had been unhappy and she had the burden of caring for her handicapped child.

Against that, the Judge said, he had to consider the gross brutality of what she did to the two-year-old child in her care.

“The child was subjected not just to one blow or series of blows in a sudden loss of self-control but a drawn-out course of physical ill-use and battering extending over half an hour or possibly longer,” his Honour said. He was concerned about Te Namu’s previous conviction in 1980 for the gross illtreatment of another small child in her care.

While serving her prison sentence Te Namu should be given psychiatric treatment and counselling, his Honour ordered.