An Auckland couple have dodged prison after pleading guilty to a raft of violent assaults against two children over a period of six years.

Ongoaere Tuakeu, 50, and Ngatamaroa Rakauroaiti, 52, appeared in Manukau District Court today facing nine charges of assault between them.

Tuakeu and Rakauroaiti used a variety of household items as weapons against the two children, including a metal gazebo pole, a tree branch, a broomstick, a vacuum cleaner rod and a wooden spoon.

When the children were aged 6 and 10, Tuakeu assaulted them with a metal gazebo pole after she found them throwing darts at an outside wall.

On one occasion, Tuakeu hit one of the kids on the head with enough force to break the wooden spoon.

During the beatings, Tuakeu would say to the victims, “Why did I have to end up with you?” and told them they took away her freedom, calling them “evil” and “a bad child”.

Ongoaere Tuakeu at Manukau District Court, which heard she once hit a child on the head with enough force to break a wooden spoon. Photo / Michael Craig

In one incident, Rakauroaiti forced a lit cigarette into one of the children’s mouths while he was coughing from the smoke.

“During the incident, you said to the [child], ‘You can vape, but you cannot smoke, it does not make sense’. You then picked him up and pushed him inside,” Judge Richard McIlraith said.

One of the children was left unable to walk properly and with bruises after Tuakeu hit his arms and legs with a broomstick, including after the boy fell on the ground and was trying to block the strikes.

The couple prevented the children from going to school if they had bruising or obvious injuries after the assaults.

During one incident, Rakauroaiti handed Tuakeu a plank of wood through the window, so she could use it as a weapon against one of the children whom she suspected had left milk outside of the fridge. Tuakeu beat the child with the plank on her upper arm, causing bruising, and slapped her on her face.

Tuakeu pleaded guilty to two charges of assault with a weapon, another assault-related charge and assault on a child.

Rakauroaiti pleaded guilty to two charges of assault with a weapon and three charges of assault on a child.

“This is a significant fall from grace for Ms Tuakeu; she has no prior convictions,” defence lawyer Jack Liu said.

Ngatamaroa Rakauroaiti received a sentence of home detention for offences against two children. Photo / Michael Craig.

The Crown lawyer noted the usual sentencing of this type of offending was one of imprisonment.

Judge McIlraith said the degree and duration of the violence “escalated over time”.

He said the children were “inherently vulnerable”, aged from 5-11 and 9-15 years old respectively during the offending.

Judge McIlraith said two years and three months’ imprisonment was an appropriate starting point for the weapon charges, with a 10-month uplift for the other charges.

He said the couple were “entitled to significant discounts” and gave them a 20% discount for their early guilty pleas, and further discounts for genuine remorse and lack of prior offending, settling on a 50% discount.

“In both of your circumstances, I think home detention is the appropriate outcome,” Judge McIlraith said.

The couple were sentenced to nine months of home detention and post-detention conditions of six months.

Charges of assault with a weapon carry a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment and assault of a child carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment.

Initial charges relating to the alleged starvation of the children were dropped by the Crown at sentencing.

Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.