Malachi Subecz's mother: 'All I hope to come from this is it doesn't happen to other parents'

Friday, 2 December 2022

Minister for Children Kelvin Davis says the Government will investigate actioning all recommendations of the review into the care and death of 5-year-old Malachi Subecz, who he says was failed by multiple agencies before his murder.

The mother of murdered five-year-old Malachi Subecz says “there are no words” for the heartbreak she has been through since her son’s death.

“Something like this I would not wish upon anyone,” she said

“I’ve made my mistakes, all of which I live with every single day. All I hope to come from this is this does not happen to other parents doing a lag who have kids.

”Do not trust anyone with your kids who aren’t family. A harsh lesson I’ve learnt in the worst possible way.”

* The boy who could name every dinosaur: ‘We tried to save him,’ family says

* Pics of abuse suffered by Malachi Subecz didn't reach police until after his murder

Malachi Subecz, 5, died in Starship Hospital on November 12, 2021.

After a request from Stuff, Malachi’s mother released a statement in the wake of Dame Karen Poutasi’s all-of-system review into how the system failed the five-year-old.

She also used the chance to thank those who had helped her. “I want to thank every single person whose genuinely supported me and helped me through the toughest time of my life. Especially those who were there.”

Malachi died in Starship Hospital on November 12, 2021, after suffering months of abuse at the hands of Michaela Barriball. She was a friend of his mother, who entrusted him in her care when she was jailed in June 2021, on serious charges.

In prison, Malachi’s mother used her prison phone card, paid for by wages she earned inside, to make at least 160 calls to Barriball so she could speak to Malachi, according to Oranga Tamariki’s practice review. The last call was made on the day after he was hospitalised.

Forty-four of these phone calls were answered and Malachi spoke to his mother about 25 times. He couldn’t see her in person due to Covid lockdown restrictions.

Dame Karen Poutasi has made 14 recommendations to protect other children and link up systems to stop children falling through the gaps like Malachi Subecz.

On Thursday, Poutasi delivered a damning review into how Government agencies failed to act to protect the child from the months of horrific torture and abuse and eventual murder.

Up until his mother’s arrest, he was a “well-cared for and loved little boy,” she said. She acknowledged Malachi’s mother, whose trust had been abused, and his family, who carry the sorrow and pain of a system that failed them, in carrying out the “shattering” review.

She identified five “critical gaps” which had rendered Subecz an “invisible child” and made 14 recommendations on how to fix these.

Her key recommendations included making child abuse reporting mandatory for all children’s services and agencies, and Oranga Tamariki vetting and providing ongoing support to caregivers for children where sole parents were being jailed.

Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis accepted nine recommendations and “committed to look carefully” at the following five, which included the mandatory reporting and caregiver vetting and support.

The recommendations should be reviewed in a year’s time by the Independent Children’s Monitor.

Malachi’s Wellington-based family say they will believe Malachi’s voice has been heard when all the changes have been made.

In her report, Poutasi reviewed 33 other reports written into child abuse in the past 30 years. She identified reports into the murders of seven children by their carers where there were similar circumstances and gaps, including Riri-o-te-Rangi (James) Whakaruru, Saliel and Olympia Aplin, Coral-Ellen Burrows, Nia Glassie, Moko Rangitoheriri and Leon Michael Jayet-Cole.

At Barriball’s sentencing, Malachi’s mother told the court she wished she could turn back time, and that seeing Malachi injured in hospital was the most frightening moment of her life.

“Michaela has taken from me the one person who ever meant anything to me,” she said. “I considered Michaela family. I trusted her with my child.”

She loved Malachi with all her heart.

“When he was naughty I didn’t discipline him hard, and I just mothered him with love and hugs. I made it my daily promise that he would never go to bed sad,” she said.

“I always told him you are smart, you are strong, you are brave, and you are important.”

Barriball was sentenced in July to life imprisonment with a 17 year non-parole period.