Dead baby was victim of poverty says judge as he acquits parents in case he calls “tragic”

An eight month old boy who died of vomiting and diarrhoea was the victim of poverty, the Tongan Supreme Court has ruled.

The Hon. Justice Cato described the case as tragic.

He made the statement in acquitting the child’s parents of charges of manslaughter by negligence.

He said the child’s death was avoidable, but that the baby and his parents were victims of poverty.

He said the parents were “perhaps lacking also in education and awareness.”

He said the defendants, Siulolovao Mafi and Teni Latu were very  ordinary  Tongan  people, living by   hand  to  mouth by  Mr  Latu’s  fishing. They lived in very  basic  accommodation  with four  children.

The child died at the beginning of 2014 after being ill for several days.

He became ill on January 30 of that year and died on February 2. He was not attended by a doctor and was not taken to hospital.

Dr Aho, a paediatrician at the Vaola Hospital, gave the cause of death as dehydration. Dr Aho said if the child had been brought to the hospital as late as the morning of February 2 and been treated, he would have lived.

The Crown’s case was that the accused grossly  neglected  their child over this period, rendering them liable to an offence of manslaughter by negligence or in the  alternative  had  both  been guilty  of  wilful  neglect  by  not  seeking  medical  assistance or taking  the  child  to hospital.

Hon. Justice Cato said that when considering his verdict, he took into account, among other matters, whether somebody in the same position as the boy’s parents would consider their conduct criminal.

He said neither of them seemed to fully understand how serious their baby’s condition was and in any case they were absolutely destitute and had no money with which to take their child to hospital several kilometres away.

He said that Mafi had relied on the wife for an assessment of the boy’s condition and had also spoken to his own mother. Tongan medicine had been tried, but failed. Teni’s sister believed the boy was possessed because they lived near a cemetery.

A local pastor was called to pray for the boy, but he too had apparently failed to realise the seriousness of the boy’s condition.

The pastor arrived in a vehicle, but did not offer and was not asked to take the boy to hospital.

The father had tried to obtain a vehicle from his patents, but they refused to lend it to him.

Hon. Justice Cato dismissed a suggestion that the boy’s mother should have taken her son and tried to hitchhike several kilometres to the medical facility.

He said the child’s feeding  had been disrupted by  a  shortage  of  breast  milk  and  the  substitution  of  inadequate liquids  instead  of  formula  which  in  Tonga  is  expensive  and  he lost  weight.

The mother had been giving the boy Milo and water and she and her sister had tried to fed the baby with chicken, breadfruit and juice while he was ill.

The judge said inadequate  diet  or  hygiene  may  have  caused  his stomach   ailment.

He said the parents did not, in his view,  wilfully  neglect, or  abandon  their  child,  but sought  a vehicle  or  money  and  assistance  from  the  extended  family  which was  not  forthcoming.

“I do  not think  that  a parent  who  is  unable to take  a  sick  child to  the  hospital  because he  or  she  did  not  have  the  means  to  do  so  should  be  found  to have  wilfully  neglected  the  child,” Hon. Justice Cato said.

“Perhaps  they   may  have  done  more over  the  three  day  period,  but  taking  into  account  their  lack  of means  it is  not clear  to  me, on  the  evidence  I have  heard, what more   they   could   have   done.

“This   case is very sad and tragic.”

The main points

  • An eight month old boy who died of vomiting and diarrhoea was the victim of poverty, the Tongan Supreme Court has ruled.
  • The Hon. Justice Cato described the case as tragic.
  • He made the statement in acquitting the child’s parents of charges of manslaughter by negligence.
  • He said the child’s death was avoidable, but that the baby and his parents were victims of poverty.

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