Where are you Esther Wolthers?

Esther Wolthers is ten, and has been in the care of CYFS for three years. She ran away from her CYFS caregiver 12 times after periodic abuse during this time. She just wants to be with her mum, who apparently knows where she is. Esther may even be in hiding with her mum. A warrant is out for her mum's arrest, and apparently Close Up @ 7 is to do a story on Wednesday night on this case, so I've been told. However TVNZ would be game to run a story with all the details. Here's why.

Last week, some of Esther's "friends" - I actually think it was her mother - set up site called Esther Wolthers where are you? This site detailed the alleged physical and sexual abuse, named the social worker, gave details of the caregiver, the suburb she lives in, and claimed she was a lesbian in her 50's, and that the caregiver was to "bond" with Esther.

It also noted that the mother attended a Destiny Church, which could explain her aversion to lesbians.

The site said that Esther was initially picked up by CYFS after false allegations by her stepfather and his family. Prior to CYFS involvement, this stepfather had been found guilty of sexually abusing his own children and jailed. Esther's mother turned him over to police. So he got his own back.

The site said that after the involvement of CYFS, the family group conference (FGC) recommended that Esther should be returned to the care of her mother. Instead she was abused by her caregiver.

The details of the alleged abuse are outrages and makes the "horsewhip" case tame in comparison. If the alleged abuse is true, that is a very serious matter.

Remember this is an agency that takes children away from their parents if they discipline their children with reasonable force, but such children are never taken away from CYFS if they are physically abused by caregivers.

I am tempted to say more but I wont. Here's why.

I had a post written up and was going to post it. Then I realised that this week the web site's content was mysteriously cleaned out. Luckily I kept a copy of most of it. I had a chat to someone from PANIC who has a contact for this mother. Obviously there are a lot of hard feelings on all sides and this woman is in hiding, while attempting to post outrageous claims on the Internet, posing as her daughters comments.

In a former post I linked to this storywhich has a picture of the girl, noting that her mother will be arrested if she does not turn up to court. She didn’t, and a warrant is out for her arrest.

It is about time that both sides of custody issues comply with the law.