Woman convicted of 1992 toddler death admits assault
Tania Gaye Hopping, convicted of manslaughter over the child abuse death of toddler Delcelia Witika in 1992, has admitted a Christchurch assault and had to stay in custody until she agreed to speak to the judge.
Hopping, 47, was known as Tania Witika at the time of the high profile death, which led to her receiving a 16-year jail term in Auckland.
She pleaded guilty today, under the name Hopping, to a charge of assaulting her husband using a vacuum cleaner pipe as a weapon, at an appearance in the Christchurch District Court.
Judge Michael Crosbie was about to grant her bail for sentencing on December 19, but she then refused to acknowledge the judge and looked away to the side when he tried to confirm her bail conditions.
The judge said: “Every defendant needs to acknowledge to the judge what their bail conditions are.”
He stood the case down in custody until she was willing to speak to him.
Andrew McKenzie appeared as duty lawyer for Hopping for her court appearance after her arrest at an address in Christchurch.
The police said Hopping was “having a heated discussion about their marriage” with her husband about 11pm yesterday.
When the husband tried to respond to what she was saying, Hopping picked up a vacuum cleaner pipe and hit him on the head with it. He tried to avoid the blow but the head of the cleaner struck him on the side of the head.
He had a cut needing four stitches, but duty lawyer Andrew McKenzie said the victim did not want the police to be involved.
Mr McKenzie said Hopping was “quite insistent on wanting to move matters forward today”.
She had a difficult past, but had rehabilitated herself from a difficult position 25 years ago.
She believed that the couple’s issues could be worked through without the restorative justice organisation being involved, he said. Her domestic violence history showed one incident with her husband in 2011.
Mr McKenzie suggested a supervision sentence could have some benefit, to allow her to re-engage with probation, though Hopping was somewhat reluctant.
Judge Crosbie said he was not willing to deal with the case immediately, because of her past record. He wanted to get a full pre-sentence report.
“It would be a sad thing if there was something going on and it wasn’t picked up when the system had the opportunity to pick it up,” he said.
Remanding her on bail for sentence, he said: “I’m taking a precautionary approach so we can do the right thing by you, and by the public, and by the victim.”
That was when she refused to acknowledge her bail conditions and had to go back into custody until she agreed to speak to the judge.
Two-year-old Delcelia was found lying dead in a pool of blood, faeces, and urine while Hopping and the baby’s stepfather, Eddie Smith, were partying at a friend’s house in South Auckland. The toddler had been badly burned after being put in a bath of hot water.
Hopping claimed at trial that she was terrified of Smith and although she had wanted to help Delcelia she had been too frightened.
Both of them found guilty by the jury and were jailed for 16 years for manslaughter.
Hopping was imprisoned at Christchurch Women’s Prison, where she had another child, which stayed in the care of her new husband, with regular Child, Youth, and Family supervision.
Mr McKenzie said Hopping had been released from prison and had been taken off the probation system in 2003. She was not subject to recall to prison to serve any more of her sentence.
When Hopping was recalled to the courtroom, 90min later, Mr McKenzie said she had “frozen” when the judge spoke to her the first time and did not mean any disrespect.
Judge Crosbie then remanded her on bail to her address in Aranui, with a report to assess her suitability for a home or community detention sentence. A bail condition is that she is not allowed to threaten her husband with violence.
She acknowledged the details of the judge’s bail conditions and was released.
Category: News
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