Once again I have
received an e-mail from someone informing me of
a child who has been abused to death.
I want to thank Jenny for all of
her help in making it possible to remember
a child who went through
so much needless pain and suffering at
the hands of her own parents.
On March 21, 1991, New Zealand authorities
received a phone call from a woman who stated that she had just returned
home to find her two year old daughter dead. Claiming she had been away
for a couple of hours, Tania Witika, the mother of the child, called from
a video store.
The ambulance driver, Martin Smith, found
a child laying dead in the fetal position. Delcelia Witika was laying on
a piece of filthy plastic which was on her bed. On her bottom, feet and
hands were what appeared to be scars from having been burned, Delcelia
had bruises over much of the rest of her body and was terribly emaciated.
Martin asked Eddie Smith about the burns and was told that Delcelia had
fallen into a hot bath a few weeks earlier, but, had not been taken to
a hospital for treatment.
The police were initially going to charge
only Eddie Smith and Tania
Witika was to be a witness aginst him.
Later, it was determined that
Tania was guilty of not taking Delcelia
for proper medical treatment.
Tania clamied that Eddie had been beating
her as well as abusing
Delcelia, that when she tried to help
Delcelia, he would beat her.
Crime scene photos have proven this to
be one of the worst cases of
child abuse ever. Delcelia was use as
a punching bag, her blood was
splattered throughout the house on carpets
and walls. There was a
pool of blood on the plastic that replaced
sheets and a blanket on
Delcelia's bed. Proof that she had vomited
during her final night was
found dripping down the bed post. Delcelia's
neck showed signs of having been scratched, her mouth was in terrible shape
with some of
her teeth having been smashed and upper
lip having been torn away
from her gums and she had scars on her
scalp where the hair had
been pulled completely out.
On the night that Delcelia died, Tania
clamied that Eddie had held a
knife to her throat and threatened to
kill her if she did not go to a party
with him. A video provided as testimony,
later showed that Tania was
partying and having a good time with Eddie
at this party while her
daughter lay at home, dying.
As the investigation went on, charges were
increased to include the
willful mistreatment of Delcelia from
the months of July 1990 to the
month of October 1990 causing unnecessary
suffering, faling to provide proper, needed medical care for the burns
which were discovered to have been the result of placing Delcelia into
hot water, murder and manslaughter.
At first, Tania tol the police that she
alone was responsible for the
death of her daughter. After finding out
that Delcelia had suffered
through massive sexual abuse, she said
that Eddie was the one who
had been responsible for most of the injuries.
Tania pleaded not
guilty to all charges stating that she
suffered from "battered-woman's-
Symdrome" at the hands of Eddie Smith.
Eddie blamed everything
on tania. Eddie Smith pleaded guilty to
the first three charges but had the nerve to plead not guilty to the others.
During the trial, Pathologist Jane Vuleic
revealed that Delcelia had
died of Peritonitus which was caused by
the blows she took to her
abdomen during the abuse she suffered.
Jane Vuleic also stated that
Delcelia suffered from severe malnutrition,
burns to 15 percent of her
body, a broken jaw and many other injuries.
The Pathologist at the trial, Jane Vuletic
told the court that Delcelia died of peritonitis caused by blows to her
abdomen. She said Delcelia also suffered from severe malnutrition, a broken
jaw, and burns to 15 per cent of her body and many other injuries.
In December of 1991, Eddie Smith and Tania
Witika, were each sentenced to ONLY 16 years for the torture, abuse
and death of Delcelia. A very small price to pay for the life of a child!
Both were sentenced to 16-year prison terms.
Neither would serve their full sentence. Tania served only 2/3 of her sentence,
Eddie would not
serve much more. Tania was proled in September
of 2002 and Eddie in February of 2003. Delcelia was only able to be paroled
in death!
In April of 2003, Tania Witika decided that
she wanted to be a social
worker and work with young victims of
domestic violence, going as far
as to quit her job in order to do so.
New Zealand Social Services
Minister, Steve Maharey has doubts that
Tania will ever get to work
with domestic violence victims. While
no one is able to stop Tania
from applying for a job with any Social
Service Angency, Maharey
says it would be extraordinary if she
got front line work. He compared
this scenerio to that of a doctor having
been convicted of murder, able
to practive again, saying:
"I can't imagine it happening." "I just
can't imagine anybody in their right mind hiring her," "Who would take the risk of the public
disapproval around that?"
National's social services spokeswoman,
Katherine Rich had this to
say about it"
"It would be a major leap of faith for
an employer to offer her a significant position as a social worker," "Horrendous life experiences don't
necessarily train a person to deal with other horrendous life
experiences." Please
don't let them become Angels to soon.
1-800-4-A-Child
Call
this number to report child abuse!
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