Craig Henry James Manukau

On Wednesday, November 18, 1992, Craig Henry James Manukau, 11, was kicked to death by his drunken father in the hallway of their home in Dannevirke. So horrible were the details of the crime that some jurors who found him guilty wept. Who is the man who brutally kicked his son to death at 15 Runciman Place, a quiet street on the fringes of a state housing area in Dannevirke? Had Carl Manukau not been "adopted out" as a baby he would have grown up in Dannevirke. Instead he was raised in Wainuiomata by the aunt who became his mother, and by his father. According to one relative, "they gave him everything". When he was old enough they sent him to Te Aute College, where he spent all of 1977 and the first term of the following year. His upbringing was quite different from that of many with whom he became involved when, in his late teens, he returned to Dannevirke - the whanau. A branch of the whanau has a long history of offending and of violence. "When the kids were little, not so much in recent times, you'd hear them crying like babies do. They you'd hear them start....'Shut your f***n' mouth'." Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents/81267814/faces-...

We were living in Dannevirke and someone told me that a little boy had been killed by his father. Surely not I thought. How could anybody parent or not hurt a child let alone kill them. Rumours were rife. This had happened, that had happened. But in the end the horrifying truth was that Craig Manukau's father went to a school disco, removed his son, took him home and kicked him to death while his mother turned up the radio to drown out the noise. Source: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/linda-hall-protect...

10-year-old Craig Manukau, went to a school disco against the wishes of his parents - who had been drinking at a party all day. When 29-year-old Carl Manukau came home to find his son had disobeyed his wishes, he drove to the school hall and marched Craig outside. Witnesses described how Carl started punching his son as he threw him into the car and drove off. Nobody intervened. Once home, Carl beat and kicked Craig to death while his wife, 28-year-old Lavinia Manukau, cowered in the kitchen, blocking her ears and turning up the radio so she could drown out her son's screams and her husband's rage. The Commissioner for Children’s inquiry found that the over-familiarity of the CYF social worker working with the family led to an inability to make an objective decisions regarding Craig’s safety. Source: 4theKids.