Couple given record jail term for the horrific abuse, torture and death of three-year-old boy.

Neighbours described Tania Shailer as a “nice”, “quiet” woman, a struggling single mum. Nothing indicated that she was capable of beating and torturing a little boy to death. But that is exactly what she and her partner David Haerewa, 43, did.

The couple were yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison for the August 2015 death of little Moko Rangitoheriri, the longest jail term a New Zealand court has ever imposed for manslaughter against a child, reports The New Zealand Herald.

The three-year-old was abused over a two month period, after his mother, Nicola Dally-Paki, left him and her daughter in the couple’s care while she tended to another child in hospital.

The court heard that Moko had been kicked, slapped, stomped on and had his own faeces rubbed in his face. He was ultimately beaten to the point that he sustained facial swelling, internal bleeding, septic shock from his leaking bowel and swelling of the brain.

It took four days after those injuries for Shailer, a 26-year-old mother of three and carer to Haerewa’s child, to call emergency services.

She told the operator that Moko had fallen off a wood pile.

The little boy was rushed to hospital, but he was pronounced dead by 10pm that evening.

In administering the sentence, High Court Judge Sarah Katz said the pair were both equally culpable in Moko’s death, and would have faced life in prison were it not for their guilty pleas.

“You embarked on a joint campaign of violence against a defenceless and extremely vulnerable child,” she said. “The offending was extremely cruel and callous, with neither of you seeking medical help for Moko while he lay dying.”

Judge Katz said while the court accepted there was a range of reasons why the couple struggled to cope with their circumstances, other families in similar situations did not assault and kill the children in their care.

While Dally-paki’s daughter was not as badly injured as her brother, she was not entirely spared.

“She said [Shailer] used to punch [her] in the face when she’d smile, and drag her by the hair to get to school,” said Dally-Paki. “They brainwashed her, they psychologically screwed her, and made her partake in the violence.”

Why Shailer and Haerewa targeted the little boy remains unclear.