The aunt and uncle of Malachi Subecz have spoken out about "sitting in limbo" following his death last year at the hands of his caregiver.
The Tauranga boy died in Starship Hospital last November after sustaining months of physical abuse - including being beaten and burnt - by Michaela Barriball.
She pleaded guilty to his murder earlier this year and is serving a life sentence. Malachi was placed into Barriball's care in June 2021 after his mother, his sole parent, was imprisoned.
Malachi's cousin raised concerns with Oranga Tamariki in the early days of his care with Barriball, who was a friend and colleague of his mother, including a photo which showed bruises. But the report was dismissed after Oranga Tamariki received assurance from Malachi's mother in prison that she had no concerns with his care.
An independent review by Dame Karen Poutasi, released today, was commissioned by the six state agencies that interacted with Malachi and his whānau in the months leading up to his death.
In it, Dame Karen listed five critical gaps in the system, including how agencies and their services failed to proactively share information, and identifying the needs of a dependent child when charging and prosecuting sole parents through the court system.
'Sitting in limbo'
"What happened was absolutely unbelievable," Peter Menzies, Malachi's uncle, told 1News.
"You always imagine that it always seems to happen to somebody else. You hear about it on the news, 'Oh, there's another poor child gone', but you never really think it's going to happen to you."
He said the "hardest part" about travelling to the hospital and "looking at this poor little boy" was "when they decided to take him off life support.
"From that point onwards, it was a vigil for 42-odd hours," he said. "He died in my arms."
Peter remembered Malachi "like it was yesterday.
"When they came here, [he and his cousins] were always up the back, always playing with the cars and the toys and stuff like that, and they were running all over the place. It was really good," he said.
His maternal aunt, Helen Menzies, remembered Malachi as a "cheeky" boy with a "sensitive soul".
"He wouldn't put himself in danger in any way...He wouldn't even walk on the grass without his socks and shoes."
Peter said one year on from his death, they are still grieving.
"It's the hardest thing to go through what we went through and to have a year behind us but it is still there," Peter said.
"We are sitting in limbo, even now. Until the new systems are in place and they're proved to be working, then we will be able to say, 'Right, we can go forward.'"
Helen said she was "still at my grieving stage" but is "trying to be there for the kids".
"I don't want them to be held back, his cousins," she said.
"I don't want them to be held back 'cause they need to move forward so I'm doing things so that they can move forward in their grief.
"They've made a lot of progress so I don't want to hold them back so I do mine when they're not around because I feel that it's not fair on them."
'Children are still dying'
Peter said his family had raised the alarm, but their concerns were met with deaf ears.
"If we had been listened to when we first started making approaches to have him removed from [Barriball's] care, instead of running up against all the brick walls that we came up against, if we had been listened to then he would be here now."
Helen said her "biggest regret" was not uplifting Malachi from Barriball's home.
"I wanted to go and uplift myself and face the kidnapping charge...If I had done that, he would've been here."
Peter said had safety nets such as a vetting process or an independent children's monitor been in place, Malachi's death could have been prevented.
While he was "more than happy" with Dame Karen's report, his "only major concern" was that "in a year's time, when they do the review, that very little will have happened".
"And in the meantime, of course, more children are still dying."
Helen added: "We don't want another family to go through what we went through. I want to save other kids from getting hurt."
Despite his fears, Peter said he was "forever hopeful" for change.
Helen echoed his calls for "real change", but was not convinced the report would lead to a more robust system.
"There's been so many reports done prior to this one and nothing's changed.
"Nothing's changed; kids are still dying," she said.
"Dying, dying, dying. Nothing's changed."
Peter called for a change in the law "so that the penalties are far worse than they are now".
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