Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The mother of a Canterbury baby that died of catastrophic head injuries has denied any involvement in her son’s death.

Soul Turany was less than four months old when he died in 2014.

No one has been charged over his death, but police have said either his mother, Storme Turany, or her then-partner, Tony Farmer, is responsible.

Coroner Ian Telford is examining the circumstances of Soul’s death during a two-week inquest in the Coroners Court at Christchurch.

Turany gave evidence on Wednesday and denied ever having hurt Soul.

“Soul was everything to me – my kids are absolutely everything to me. Soul made me realise why I was put on this Earth and that was to be a mum,” Turany told the inquest.

Turany told her lawyer Allister Davis she loved Soul “with everything I have”.

Davis asked if she ever took her frustrations out on the boy: “Not once,” Turany responded.

Had she ever injured Soul? “Not once,” she responded again.

“Let me put this to you – did you have anything to do with Soul’s death?” Davis asked.

“No, I did not,” Turany answered.

The inquest heard Soul was taken to hospital on the morning of 30 August after emergency services were called to the rural home near Darfield he shared with Turany and Farmer.

Doctors found Soul’s skull was broken in two places. He was bleeding in one eye and over a vast tract of his brain. The infant died in hospital early on 31 August.

Turany’s sister Skye Lamborn last week told the court about an occasion when Turany “chucked” Soul down on a bed and then called her in tears.

That episode came to light when Turany was being interviewed by police about a fortnight after Soul’s death.

Lamborn was invited into the interview by investigators and told Turany to tell them about it.

But Lamborn told the coroner on Monday she offered the information as she wanted to get to the bottom of how her nephew died, and had no concerns about how her sister treated Soul or any other children, including her own.

Lamborn was adamant her sister was not involved in Soul’s death.

Turany told the coroner on Wednesday the incident was blown out of proportion and she did not chuck her son on the bed.

“It was not chucked – I was over-dramatic and over-protective,” Turany said.

“When I have put Soul down on the bed – I was so careful with Soul – so when I’ve put him down, it was firmer than I would have put him down every other time.”

The court heard she had been concerned on another occasion when a fly landed on Soul.

Soul had been unwell in the days before 30 August.

Asked about the morning Soul suffered the fatal injuries, Turany said Soul woke up about 3am and was unsettled. Turany said she tried settling him using paracetamol, nasal spray and by removing mucus from his nose.

When she could not get the boy to settle, she called Healthline about 6.30am. Soul was conscious when she called Healthline, Turany said.

Farmer was holding Soul when she made the call and stepped outside to speak to Healthline, Turany said. The phone call lasted about nine minutes.

“Tony had Soul for the entire duration I was on the call,” Turany said.

“Tony was now standing up to hand Soul to me. He was standing up holding Soul ready to pass him to me and he’s either said ‘Storme’ or ‘babe’, but it was in a very shocked voice.

“He looked really worried. As he’s handing him to me, Soul’s arms have gone completely limp. He’s completely limp by the time he’s handed him to me.”

The coroner heard the couple met on the dating app Tinder just over a month after Soul’s birth. The couple soon moved in together at Lamborn’s home before moving into a farmer’s residence on the dairy farm Lamborn managed with her husband.

Turany and Farmer had been living with Soul at that home for only about a month when he was fatally injured.

“Things were moving quite quickly,” Turany said.

Farmer will give evidence on Thursday.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Raffles have long been a popular way to fundraise, but some of them may not be legal.

A Christchurch company director was due to be sentenced this month for running the largest ever illegal lottery in New Zealand, highlighting what some say was a lack of knowledge around the legality of running raffles.

The lottery, which generated over $11 million in revenue, was highlighted by the Department of Internal Affairs as a “stark warning” to anyone involved in running an illegal lottery of any scale.

However, community leaders say small scale raffles run by families to cover essential expenses should be seen in a different context.

Lara Dolan, the CEO of Māngere Budgeting Services Trust, said while she hadn’t seen many clients who run or participate in raffles, she had noticed families running it in her South Auckland community to cover essential travel.

“Because they don’t have enough savings, and it’s also cultural for people that in their cultures, they must attend family events such as weddings and funerals.”

A quick online search for raffles has taken RNZ to posts including fundraisers to send a child on their overseas exchange trip, a sports club raffle where alcohol was the prize, and businesses selling their products as a lucky draw.

Rules around raffles were set out in the Gambling Act 2003.

Lawyer Marty Robinson was a former advisor to the Department of Internal Affairs’ gambling team and runs his own practice, he broke the rules down.

“They’re basically classified by the amount that is spent in the type of gambling, and the risk of problem gambling that’s associated with that activity.”

Under Class 1, individuals and groups could run lottery with a prize or turnover up to $500, all proceeds from the raffle must be returned as prizes.

Societies such as sports clubs can run Class 2 and Class 3 gambling, and all proceeds must benefit the community – not an individual or business.

Class 4 gambling usually referred to gaming machines such as pokies.

Robinson said most community raffles were run under Class 1 or Class 2, which prohibited selling tickets through online or phone calls.

There were also rules around how you could use the funds, he said.

“If you are looking to take money out you can’t use it for say, sending you child overseas, it got to be for an authorised purpose, and the under the act basically that means a charitable purpose, a non-commercial or community based type of purpose.”

And for all classifications, certain types of prizes were prohibited.

According to DIA, the list included firearms, alcohol, tobacco, taonga tuturu, vouchers or entitlements to commercial sexual services, or other items that were in breach of any New Zealand laws such as recreational catches and illegal drugs.

Robinson said the Gambling Act was set to protect society from harmful gambling.

“I’m a criminal litigator in court and very often we find addiction is the underlying cause of people offending, it’s often drugs and increasingly methamphetamine but gambling has always been a major issue in a lot of embezzlement and fraud.”

But low value community raffles were often not as harmful, when compared to other activities such as online gambling, he said.

Grant Hewiston, secretary for Communities Against Alcohol Harm, agreed most community raffles were less of an issue.

While he was deeply concerned about problematic gambling and addictions, he thought the law should be applied with context when it comes to raffle fundraisers.

“If it was a private commercial profit, then that might be closer to being an issue. But where it’s a community of people to raise funds to support each other from time to time, my kind of sense is that we’re getting into some grey area about whether this is such a mechanism for community and social kind of funding and support, and maybe it shouldn’t be seen as private people profiting from these raffles.”

He said those participating in these community raffles often don’t expect to win, but know they were helping someone out, and anticipated being offered similar help when they needed it in the future.

Dolan was concerned if communities cannot run raffles to raise funds, it could have big impacts on those who were already struggling with cost of living.

“The only other option for them will be just to borrow money at higher interest rates, which is not ideal. This will be quite devastating for them.”

However, she thought if law enforcement was concerned over the activity, raising awareness was needed.

“To be honest, they’re (the community) probably not aware of the rules. I think if it is an illegal activity, the first thing that needs to happen is education campaign needs to be put in place so people actually do know about it.”

The Department of Internal Affairs was planning an education campaign later this month.

In a written statement, Vicki Scott, the Department’s director for Gambling, said Internal Affairs prioritises responses to the most serious cases.

“With consideration to resourcing the Department looks at illegal gambling activity as a whole (across the various forms it may take) and prioritises responses to the most serious issues identified. Given illegal gambling operates outside the law, where no application has been made or advice sought from the Department, we are largely reliant on illegal raffles being reported to us and encourage people to do so if they have concerns.”

She said over the last two years, targeted enforcement had led to multiple prosecutions which included illegal raffles operated by gangs and commercial illegal poker venues.

She encouraged people to report anything of concern.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand