Good Stable Families Not to Blame for Horrors of Nia Abuse

A leading NZ psychotherapist says that good stable families don’t turn out such uncaring cruel people who can switch off as a little tiny toddler screams for help.

‘The dreadful truth is that she won’t be the last and she wasn’t the first,” says Chris Hight, founder of AskChris – NZ’s first web-based online counselling service. “We must ask ourselves the hard questions of what sort of community and family environment raises children like those accused, to become the monsters that they became.”

“And what of the jury, now suffering post traumatic stress disorder from listening to hours of horror that most movie makers wouldn’t show? The legacy of the Nia murderers extends beyond Nia now to another 11 people who will no longer sleep soundly, will no longer be able to read another child abuse story without being plunged back into their own nightmare, and will no longer be free from things like anxiety, panic attacks, hyper vigilance around their own children and grand children and possibly a deep sense of despair.”

“But not all abused children die,” says Chris Hight. “Many live their horror in more real terms, more experiential terms than the jury will. Attachment Theory tells us a lot about the developing brain, the social and intellectual abilities and the relational potential of children brought up in secure, stable families. Surely this is the status quo, the accepted norm that we should be promoting.”

“The old saying that it takes a village to raise a child has never rung more true than the call on all of us to be alert and to be involved in our communities making a difference and modelling something that will change the tsunami that threatens our next generation.”

ENDS

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