11 May 2016
Women’s Refuge clarifies information about abuse allegations
Women’s Refuge is anxious to clarify allegations currently circulating in the media about the abuse suffered by Moko
Rangitoheriri prior to his death.
It has been reported that Moko’s sister disclosed to a Women’s Refuge social worker that he (Moko) was being abused by
Tania Shailer the caregiver of both children. “This is untrue,” says Chief Executive of Women’s Refuge Dr Ang Jury.
“Women’s Refuge has a robust Child Abuse Reporting Protocol in place and if a disclosure of this kind had been made to
us, it would have resulted in an immediate notification of concern to CYF. In this case the information provided to us
was around child to child interaction and not at a level for us to have considered that these allegations were serious
enough for a notification to Child, Youth and Family.”
Dr Jury explained that as part of standard refuge process, the matter of the children’s behaviour was raised in a later
discussion with Ms Shailer in order to support her with managing challenging behaviour by and among the children.
“We had not heard any direct allegation from a child on our programme that an adult had physically hurt Moko or any
other children. Had this in fact occurred I am sure the response would have been very different.
“It is only now, with the benefit of hindsight, that all of us can look back and wonder what might have happened if more
was done for this family,” she said.
ends