1 SEAGULL SQUAWKS Oh, I can still see it. Beautiful girl. She was quite a sickly baby when she, uh, was born, and she ended up being an asthmatic child. But when she became a mum, oh,... she was a beautiful mum, absolutely beautiful mum. SEAGULL SQUAWKS GENTLE PIANO MUSIC Always smiling. She would also wave, 'Hi, Auntie,' you know. CHILDREN LAUGH Just what happened to her is so sad. You know, it still hurts today. It'll probably hurt forever, what happened to Janet. Hello, bubba. SEAGULL SQUAWKS Hello. You know, one day maybe the girls are gonna ask us, and we haven't got an answer. What do you say to two beautiful girls when they ask you, 'What happened to our mummy?' Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016. INDISTINCT RADIO TRANSMISSION RADIO STATIC RADIO STATIC INDISTINCT RADIO TRANSMISSION It was shortly after 5pm on the Friday, where our police communications centre had a call requesting that police attend at an address in Wainuiomata. My name is Tusha Penny. I was a Detective Sergeant in Lower Hutt, second in charge of the operation. DOG BARKS What we could never have appreciated when we first walked through the door was that what was about to unfold was something incredibly unique, something incredibly tragic and something very challenging. FOREBODING MUSIC SOBBING FLOORBOARDS CREAK FOOTSTEPS SPLASH WATER SPLASHES FOOTSTEP SQUELCHES Whenever you work on any case, any case at all, it's a privilege. You have a really big job to do. And we worked very hard... to understand how a family... could do that one of their own. SOBBING There were conflicting stories about how Janet had died,... although some of the family members had said she had actually died hours earlier and from a mental illness or sickness. SOBBING FOREBODING MUSIC It was a matter of trying to unravel what had happened, trying to work back. We talked to in excess of 70 people. We let them tell their story. One person saying it probably doesn't have a lot of weight, but when a whole lot of people are telling you the same story, then there's something in that. Take a seat. FOREBODING MUSIC CHAIR SCRAPES So, do you promise me everything we talk about in this room today will be the truth? Um, yep. If I can remember. So, what I'll get you to do is just read that card out aloud, please. READS: I, Glenys Wright, do sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will tell the truth during this interview here today. READS: I, John Tahana Rawiri,... sincerely and truthfully affirm that I will tell the truth in this interview here today. This family cooperated fully with the police. Uh, my name's Phil Mitchell. I was defence counsel, tasked primarily with researching the case. They genuinely believed there was something very malignant and dangerous within her. You can't just act on... bizarre beliefs and kill someone and nothing's done about it. My name's Grant Burston. It was my responsibility to lead the team of Crown prosecutors who conducted the case against the people charged in relation to Janet's death. What have you come to talk to me about today? About Janet Moses. Mm-hm. Shall we start there? Um, just... from the 21st? When we were at the Palliser Hotel. R&B MUSIC PLAYS INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS On the Saturday night, um, there was a 21st function for Janet's sister at the Palliser Hotel in Wainuiomata. You have close families, but this was extraordinary. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS R&B MUSIC PLAYS A close-knit family might be a family that gets together for lunch every Sunday, but these people, they lived together, they had their own family sports team, they socialised together. I can remember numerous times during the trial, people saying their best friends were their cousins. They did everything together. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS R&B MUSIC PLAYS LAUGHTER, INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS Janet had a very difficult time in the weeks leading up to her death. There seemed to be a complete and total change in her. Well, Jan was just... sitting,... gazing at the wall. She didn't look right. This was quite a shock to everybody around her. It seemed to have come on very quickly. My name is Dr Rees Tapsell. I'm a consultant forensic psychiatrist, and I'm also of Maori origin and have, through my life,... been involved in, uh, the interface between, particularly, psychiatry and cultural practice. Janet had a very close and loving relationship with her grandmother, and her grandmother passed away relatively recently. And she'd also had some fairly major stressors in terms of a relationship. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS And I think the combination of those things are likely to have put a huge amount of pressure and stress on her. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS Who is Shayne? Um,... that's Janet's partner. Tell me about him, about him that night. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS Hello, my darlings. Come on. We'll go. I'm just gonna hang out with the boys for a little bit. Come be with the kids. > (CRIES) (SIGHS) I love youse. (SNIFFS) (CRIES) Shh. She learned of an infidelity with her partner,... and after that, she became very withdrawn. (CRIES) Did you drop Janet off somewhere? We went over to Jan's auntie's, and we ended up staying the night there. FOREBODING MUSIC PANTING MUTTERS: They're coming, they're coming, they're coming, they're coming, they're coming. They're coming, they're coming. (MUTTERS) FOREBODING MUSIC Jan! Jan? Hey. Come on. Come back inside now. Come on. You're OK. 'Our girl was in danger. 'We decided to take her down to my brother Johnny's' and get the family together for a hui to discuss her and why she's not acting right. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS What do you have to do to get a cup of tea round here? Hey, you. Come here. They, I think, had regular family meetings to discuss anything that popped up, which is quite a lovely traditional way. I mean, maybe it's the way we all were generations ago. And unfortunately, the grandmother had died, uh, and she had been a great matriarch of this family for a long time. And she would always take charge in situations like this, and she wasn't there. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS Everyone put their ideas together to work out what the problem was with Jan. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS POIGNANT MUSIC Normally, she's happy-go-lucky, yeah. We all knew something was very wrong,... something deep. WATER DRIPS WATER RUNS POIGNANT MUSIC Um, she didn't have no tears... or nothing. She was just sitting there. And as hot as she was, she still wouldn't take off her jacket. People were just coming up to her saying, 'I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way,' stuff like that,... 'We're all here for you. We all love you' and everything. And did Janet talk at the meeting? Hmm. She was just staring at the ground and stuff. INDISTINCT ECHOING VOICES OVERLAP FOREBODING MUSIC WATER BUBBLES INDISTINCT ECHOING OVERLAPPING VOICES FADE MUSIC CONTINUES WIND HOWLS, MEN SHOUT North Islander, huh? Yeah. How can ya tell? No reason. CROWD CHEERS, WHISTLE BLOWS UPBEAT MUSIC 1 It's very difficult to be certain about what was actually happening to Janet, but all of the evidence that I saw suggested that she was becoming psychotic and that she was having, uh, extreme changes in her mood. But it's important to remember that whilst I, uh, might have a particular medical paradigm in the way in which I view and approach mental illness, not everybody shares that paradigm. GENTLE MUSIC Ko Putauaki toku maunga ` Putauaki is my ancestral mountain. Ngati Awa toko iwi ` Ngati Awa is my tribe. Ko Iramoko toku marae ` Iramoko is my marae,... where I live. Pouroto Ngaropo taku ingoa. Pouroto Ngaropo is my name. I've had the privilege and honour to be a cultural adviser to the prime minister of NZ, the Right Honourable Helen Clark. We can only run so far from the spiritual world, from a Maori point of view. We are both spirit ` ira atua ` and human, ira tangata. Over the last 200 years, there has been a process of colonisation, where a lot of our own beliefs and values have been replaced. It's important to hold fast to traditional Maori beliefs, Maori culture, Maori customs and practices, in particular, Maori spirituality. Those that are believers, those who have a knowledge and recognition and respect for the spiritual realm know there are things in the spiritual world which are positive and there are also spirits that are of a negative nature. INDISTINCT VOICES OVERLAP What else was talked about at the meeting? RAPID BEAT There was a lion statue, which had actually been stolen several weeks before from the Greytown Hotel. Jan's sister, she had taken a taonga from Greytown,... which is, um, a lion,... or a white lion. It's so heavy. Use your muscles. My recollection is that they stole the lion because they thought it would be a meaningful symbol to have decorating the house. John had a tattoo of a lion. Um, the lion, in fact, uh, was one of the family's symbols and a symbol of their sports group. My name is Heather Kavan. I'm a lecturer at Massey University. I research extraordinary religious experiences. I made a study of the Moses manslaughter trial and felt a connection with the case because I was raised in Wainuiomata, and Wainuiomata, well, it's suburbia, it's surrounded by three hills, very cut off, uh, but there are pockets of intense spirituality. TYRES HUM ON ROAD EERIE MUSIC Uh, kia ora. My name is Tamati Cairns. I am from Wainuiomata or resident of, uh, Wainuiomata, uh, and have been since 1981. I used to deliver the social work programme back home. One particular session we had, Hohepa Kereopa took us down to a little stream in Waimana. He said, 'Choose a little stone.' He says, 'Now, name your stone around someone or something special in your life.' So we all did. And then Hohepa conducted traditional karakia. I named my taonga after my kuia, who is in this photo, Te Hiri. And after karakia, he said, 'Well, if your heart... 'is where your decision was... 'and you believe in the power of karakia, then that stone is now a taonga.' INTENSE MUSIC In the case of the lion,... Janet believed that there was something wrong. That condition is in the eyes of the believer,... not in our interpretation and translation or what we think it is. It is what it is. INTENSE MUSIC Family members accompanied Janet to the small flat in Wainuiomata, which was actually the home of her grandfather. MUSIC CONTINUES MUSIC SURGES MUSIC SURGES (SCREAMS) (PANTS) (GASPS) I was brought up to know about the spirits and all of that,... but how I was brought up, when you take something from a marae or wherever it was taken, um, yes, you would be hit. Um, something will happen to you, but it always hits the weakest. And cos Janet, being the sickly one out of all of them, yes, it would've hit Janet. PHONE RINGS About midnight, Gaylene rang, says we've gotta get round to Dad's cos sister Olli ` well, Janet's mum ` she was starting to get scared. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! We were up all Sunday night with her. FOREBODING MUSIC They contacted an uncle, Jimmy Rahi, a tohunga,... a Maori priest, if you like. GENTLE MUSIC Tohunga is the medium between the spiritual and the physical, the access one needs. It's like consulting the pastor of a church. MUSIC CONTINUES They would trust absolutely in the tohunga's advice given them. That advice was` You know, it's like God's word. MUSIC CONTINUES CAR DOOR SLAMS INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS MUSIC CONTINUES He mihi nui tatou. E ihowa titiro iho koe i te rangi, maharatia ano hoki tenei pononga au, whakamamakia tona mate. Araia atu i a ia nga rauhanga a te hoa riri, kia mau tonu hoki tona ngakau i runga i te rangimarie; ko Ihu Karaiti to matou Ariki. Amine. It wasn't until Jimmy came out that we were told that it was... makutu. INTENSE MUSIC 1 What do you mean when you say 'the curse'? It kind of makes you... mentally sick, I think it is. Um,... it's kind of hard to explain. Nga raruraru me nga mamae... (CLAPS SOFTLY) A makutu is not something... that might be regarded as an oddity. It is simply part and parcel of a Maori understanding of life. ...i roto i nga tapu to Ihu Karaiti ta matou kaiwhakaora. In traditional times, makutu was used as a means of protection or a revenge mechanism if someone had killed or hurt your family. ALL: Ake ake. Amine. It's really cursing them and damaging their soul and right in the heart of who they are. What happened next? I roto i te ingoa o te Matua. He blessed her with water, you know, like a church christening, and the karakia to ward off the evil. I roto te ingoa o te Matua. 'You never talk about this sort of thing, eh?' In 1814 our ancestors were introduced to Christianity, ronohi, in the Bay of Islands. And now that's become sort of one of the ways in how our people see our own concepts. There was a whole shift away from the spiritual structure of Maori society. And now we are confronted with makutu, how well do we understand actually what's happening? ALL: Ake ake. Amine. And what is that we're doing to ensure that we have the right advice around us? GENTLE MUSIC At this point Jimmy Rahi had a revelation ` uh, a revelation that would change the course of events dramatically. He said that he had a vision of... three claws in Janet. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS TENSE MUSIC He advised the family that they had to return the stone lion to Greytown, because it had a mate there that was missing it and that it was very important that they were reunited. Jimmy said the lions had been together for over a hundred years. And what did Jimmy do? I think he blessed the whare. And he said the lion had to go back. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC So, the following day on the Tuesday, there was a convoy. About eight or nine vehicles went over to the Wairarapa from Wainuiomata, back to the Greytown Hotel. From that point on, um, many of them didn't in fact even go to work for a week. They were with her all the time. They kept watch over her. They were dedicated to her welfare. Janet was there, Timi Rahi was there. Janet's namesake, her paternal grandmother, was there. We know that because there was an incident that alarmed a lot of people. RAPID BEAT (PANTS) Janet? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, not you. Not you. Not you. Stop that! No. No, not you. You shouldn't even be here. What are you doing here?! What are you doing here? Janet! Shh! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on, girl. Calm down. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Calm down. Are you all right? When this car stops, I'm gonna kill you. Janet! When this car stops, I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna kill you! Janet! Janet! Come on, girl! SCREAMING No! Calm down! INTENSE MUSIC (GASPS) # ...tenei po # tu matou # aroha ai # tama. # INTENSE MUSIC THUD! THUD! MUSIC FADES Engari whakaorangia matou i te kino, nou hoki te rangatiratanga, te kaha, me to kororia, ake, ake, ake, amine. In the spiritual domain of Maoridom, it's all about goodness and love,... not about death. INTENSE MUSIC It's done now, girl. I believe within my heart they would know within their family... You're all right, girl. ...that through the power of prayer, through the power of goodness, all these curses can be lifted. Apparently, in the hours that followed, she improved. CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC CAR TYRES HUM ON ROAD MUSIC FADES We came back to Wainui from Greytown,... and I think everybody went to Koro's. And then we had a feed... of, um... of fish and chips. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS Bro, pass that fish down. That one. LAUGHTER INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS The tohunga said to them, 'Well, you know, I've done what I can now. 'You've returned the lion, and she looks much better.' I think this is one of the tragic turning points of what happened. Well, Jan, ki te whakata te tuatahi, ki te manaaki i a ia ano hoki, a, ma koutou te whanau katoa e hapai a ia, a muri ake i tena, kei te pai ia. What uncle's been saying is that Jan needs to rest and to look after herself. Out of the three things that were in her,... I think two were them were to do with the lion... and the last one was to with, um,... her, um... Shayne. And it had to do with her partner. She was getting mental and verbal abuse from him. Uncle Jimmy said that he'd done his part, but he wouldn't do the relationship with Shayne part ` that was for the family to do. ALL: # Go with peace and love. # Go with peace... # and love. # Go with peace... # and love. # Go with peace... and love... Addressing the demon that they believed was inside her,... they said over and over and over again... # Go with peace... # and love. # Go with peace... # and love... MUTTERS: They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. The money. The money. The money. The money. That's that. That's that. That's that. That's that. That's that. She was trying to tell us something. It was like a jigsaw, trying to put the pieces together to work it out. And then when we did, it would right itself out. INTENSE MUSIC # Go with peace... # and love. # ALL CHANT: Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... Lord Jesus, we have come together in your name. And it is written that whatever we ask shall be given. We ask for complete and full healing for Janet Moses. Go with peace and love... We ask this in your name, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. We have received your blessings for this child. Amen. Amine. ALL: Go with peace and love. Go with peace... and love. Go with peace and love... Everyone to do their waters and clear themselves first before the karakia. Jan in the middle of the circle surrounded by everyone holding hands. Say the karakia. Jan's water's to be done. ALL: Go with peace and love. Drink it, girl. Go with peace and love. This family had a long association with water. They had rituals which they'd learned from their grandmother, and they used to talk about` I can remember during the trial, they would talk about doing their waters to safeguard themselves. But they all seemed to do it, and the defence generally was she'd consented to being involved in this process. And they, the participants, genuinely believed that what they were doing was to help her. But this is a family that deeply respected their elders. And who's Janet to question that they're doing what they're doing in her best interests? They didn't ask or consider the question whether Janet was consenting. She could have said, 'No, I don't want any part of this.' From time to time, she was sitting outside having a cigarette with her cousins. She could have just got up and walked away. INTENSE MUSIC And she didn't. MUSIC CONTINUES There were two Janets. There was the Janet who went outside, had a smoke break, was happy to go back inside when it was time to start again. And then there was the Janet who screamed, she yelled. There were two Janets, so who do you decide is the one that consented? No, no, no, no, no! It'll be all right. Come on, Janet. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Girl, come on. Come on. Come on. DISTORTED: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's all right. It's all right. (GROWLS) (GROWLS) (GROWLS) (GROWLS) Get out! Get out of her! Leave her alone! You cannot have her! (GROWLS) Go with peace and love. ALL: Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. 1 INTENSE MUSIC Wednesday evening, things really started to intensify within that flat. When Janet got up, she'd head to the shower. And she'd turn it on hot, you know. I'd turn it back to cold. SCREAMING They were saying that was our weapon, kind of thing,... against the demon... Mm-hm. ...was, um,... cold water. Hit the water, John! Keep it cold! No, no, no, girl. We love you, girl! It's all good. It's all good. (SCREAMS) We love you, girl. (SCREAMS) You could see the blackness rising up from her eyes, and they would just get real big. Come on, girl! No, don't fight us. Come on. We love you. Stay under the cold. That's it. > But who said evil spirits don't like cold water? INTENSE MUSIC She did come right. She spewed up all this mucus. (WHIMPERS, COUGHS) INTENSE MUSIC It was wiped up using a towel, and then it was decided that the makutu was on the towel and that no one else could use the bathroom where the, uh, toilet and shower were located. Out came the vomit, out came the demon. The purpose of the water then turned from the purification of the body to an instrument to cause vomiting. And so it escalated. CRICKETS CHIRP Jan! Janet! Janet! It's Shayne. INTENSE MUSIC (PANTS) So, Shayne was around. Did Janet want to see him? We had asked her. She couldn't make decisions for herself. Come on. INTENSE MUSIC < This is your fault! < My fault?! You brought all this! You did this! You don't need to be here! DOG BARKS It started a downward spiral, with, like, the family lacking any sort of external contact. It was so closed and, uh,... insular and suffocating. (SIGHS) Look at her eyes. Look at her eyes. Janet? INTENSE MUSIC The whanau, come on. Here, lie down. Come on, girl. Whoever wasn't in that whare at that time will never understand. Come on, girl. Come on back. Come on, hon. Come on. Shh. Calm down. ALL: Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... Just imagine the pressure, the fear, the anxiety, the panic. It comes down to actually, you know, your love for that person to stay there and to endure it. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. My name is Viv Babbington,... and I live right opposite the house. I could hear everything ` chanting inside and the stomping, boom, boom, boom, boom, yeah, over here, you know? It was.... It was deafening here. ALL: Go with peace and love... Mind you, there's so many people. There was heaps of them. That place was chocka, man. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... It was going on, doing their thing. All of us here,... we're used to the quietness of the place,... not all that noise. But what can you do? No one called the police. Pulled the curtains, and I've seen enough. That's it. I said we needed to get together again as a family. Some of us hadn't seen our children for... two, three days. INTENSE MUSIC There was about a dozen of our babies. MUSIC CONTINUES And Jan's mum. We tried to make them comfortable. MUSIC CONTINUES She kept wanting to go to the shower. Something was saying the evil spirits wanted hot water. She didn't like the cold water, eh? Drink it, girl. Come on. Spew it up. Get it out. Spew it up! ALL CLAMOUR Come on! Get it in! (YELLS) Throw it up, girl! We were in there with her for ages. It felt like bloody hours. ALL CLAMOUR The power was so strong. And there's us fighting it. SCREAMING It's all right, girl! Let it go! Let it go! Just let it go! KNOCK AT DOOR SCREAMING, YELLING And her father was there then too. SCREAMING Get it in! Get in there! SCREAMING Get in! Get it in! Get it in! SCREAMING Get in! Get in! SCREAMING Get in there! SCREAMING Get in! SCREAMING Get in! Stay still! GROWLING Get in! SHOUTING Get in! Come on! Get in! SHOUTING CONTINUES INTENSE MUSIC WATER RUNS SHOUTING CONTINUES Argh! (GASPS) INTENSE MUSIC CONTINUES Spit it out! Who am I? Who am I? Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am? (PANTS) It seemed to go on for ages. Yeah. But then suddenly, she... she just came back... good as gold. You need to come home with me, bub. (PANTS, SIGHS) Several times, Gerald Moses asked Janet to leave with him. He vowed that he was going to return the next morning and collect his daughter, um, regardless of her reluctance to leave with him. When things calmed down, we got our baby back in the bed. We let her get some rest. We felt that she was coming back to herself. We sat around waiting for her to wake up. And she'd wake up,... walk around,... go back to sleep. But then it changed again. I went to sleep. And when I woke up, it was a catastrophe. MUTTERS: They're coming. They're coming. Janet, you want a cig? They're coming. They're coming. Mate. Janet. Are you all right? Janet? Hey, babe. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. They're coming. (GASPS) Shh. It's all right. They're coming! They're coming! They're coming! They're coming! John! John! They're coming! They're coming! They're coming! They're coming! Bro! They're coming! They're coming! Shh! They're coming! They're coming! Janet, what's the matter? Who? They're coming! They're coming! It was at that point Janet made quite a large change. She said that she wanted to lay down her life for her family, to sacrifice herself during, uh, this imminent battle. They're coming. They're coming. Get inside! Come on. Come in, girl. They're coming. They're coming! Get in! They're coming. They're coming! What's happening? They're coming! They're coming! They're coming! They're coming! They're coming! (SCREAMS) They're coming! ALL CLAMOUR Papa! Papa! Papa! Where? Where? Over there, Papa! Over there! They're coming! They're coming! INTENSE MUSIC SOBBING ALL CLAMOUR Leave my whanau alone! ALL CLAMOUR INTENSE MUSIC 1 She had a necklace, like, a bone carving, that, um, she got from her nan. Mm-hm. Um, they were saying that,... um, the demon was getting all its strength from the bone carving. (COUGHS) Johnny, get the scissors. (COUGHS) Here. OK. Just... No, come on. No, no, no, no, no, no. (WHIMPERS) Come on. You'll feel better. Come on. Come on. No, you'll feel better. Come on. (COUGHS) Come on. That's it. Lie down. Come on. (COUGHS) Sis, some water. (COUGHS, GASPS) Come on. Rest. That's better, eh? How does that feel? (COUGHS) Here. Come on, Janet. Some water, eh. Wanna drink some water? Come on. Come on. Come on, Jan. Come on. Come on, girl. It's all right. It's good for you, eh. That's it, Jan. Gotta clean it out. Come on. One more. One more. (COUGHS) Come on. (GASPS) Come on, Jan. Go with peace and love. (MOANS) ALL: Go with peace and love. (COUGHS) Go with peace and love. Sis, water. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. (COUGHS) Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. The children had, uh, no access to the bathroom. Uh, in fact, nobody had any access to the bathroom. When people needed to relieve themselves, they did so into diapers and nappies and towels and just into the clothes that they were wearing. So it became increasingly... strange behaviour. ECHOING: Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. That's it. Come on, girl. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Hold her. Good girl. Good girl, Jan. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Come on, Jan. Come on, baby. Go with peace and love. We love you. We're gonna get that thing now. Come on, girl. Good girl. (SPITS) A little bit more. (GROWLS) Go with peace and love! Come on, whanau! ALL: Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... It wasn't actually Janet that was fighting them; it was the demon inside of her. Go with peace and love. More water! Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... RAPID BEAT Yeah, we kept thinking it was Shayne that was doing this to our niece, but nah, nah, it was that lion. It was revenge for splitting them up. RAPID BEAT Argh! The room was intensely hot,... a furnace. Everything by this stage was drenched. ALL: Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... Water was rising in the kitchen. I stuck a steel in to put a hole in the floor. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... All the eyes of our children were going strange, evil. And you could see all these things racing around in them. You've got something in your eye, and it's racing round in there. How would you get it out without putting your hand in there to grab it out? ALL: Go with peace and love. Go with peace and love... Some of the, um, people were thinking to themselves, 'We should take Janet to hospital,' but they weren't the leaders. To even think about saying, 'Stop. This might not be right,' they felt they couldn't do it. Because if they did, well, then perhaps they too were gonna be cursed, and they might end up in Janet's position. And there's the power of the group in what's happening. I think evil was in each and every one of us, cos we were doing things we wouldn't normally do. INTENSE MUSIC And then they made a rule that you weren't to look into Janet's eyes in case you too became possessed. MUSIC CONTINUES And was Janet talking? Did she say anything? There was, um, one part where... Janet goes,... 'Auntie, stop. Just let me have a breather.' Then what happened? Um,... they were doing Joshy... and trying to make him, you know, spit up all the yucky stuff in him. Then, I remember,... they did it to Mads,... did her. And then, I remember,... they, um... they done it to me too. Um,... I don't feel like they were... trying to hurt us. Um, they would have had their reasons. Get off me! Fuck off! It's all right. Fuck off! They continued on with the teenage girl for hours. She finally broke free... at the same time that Janet... also managed, with over half a dozen people holding her down, to break free. However, the group interpreted this as the makutu... doubling it's strength by unifying the teenage girl and Janet. And so, uh, these young women who had broken free were pulled back. POIGNANT MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES She became the second lion from Greytown. And it was her and Janet working together. These were sensible people. They worked, played sport and lived a great Kiwi life. Everyone just got caught up in it. Hysteria is a not uncommon state. Most of us at times have felt a bit hysterical. And world history is littered with examples where very very extreme things are... are done on the basis of a set of beliefs that to many might not make any sense. I think what's going in here is what would happen to any of us if we were stuck in a room for five days with no sleep, having little to eat, rhythmic chanting, 40-degree heat, stomping, intense fear. I think we would all go berserk in that situation. This is the human condition. I know most people won't understand. A makutu is evil. You have to find a way of putting it right to get the person back to normal again. 1 POIGNANT PIANO MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES The mechanism in dying through drowning on dry land or, uh, through immersion in water is the same. The water gets into the lungs. That causes the membrane in the, uh, lungs to froth up and produces a` a frothy liquid. That gets, uh, absorbed further into the lungs. That collapses some of the air sacks. That compromises the ability to circulate oxygen in the body. Vocal chords go into spasm. The heart goes into abnormal rhythm. She swallows her tongue. At one point, her... jaw locked. And instead of thinking, 'Gosh, we've gone too far,' the participants thought that... her jaw had been locked by the makutu to stop them from getting even more water into it. So they prized her jaw open,... and she... died. So, when did you realise that Janet was getting to the point where her body was passing away? I didn't. When did you notice she'd passed? I still didn't. We were just trying to get the other girl right. The whole place was full of evil. I tried to do CPR. Well, I don't know how to do it. POIGNANT MUSIC Jan was on the floor,... with all my brothers and sisters around,... trying to bring her back to life. POIGNANT MUSIC CONTINUES MUSIC CONTINUES SOBBING, WAILING We were trying to work out if it was in the house. All of the children, and... this makutu was in the house. WAILING As soon as they realised Janet had passed, um, they amped up the efforts on the teenage girl. ROARING, SCREAMING Get out of her! Fuck off! Argh! You leave her alone! You get out! We've lost one ` you know, don't let us lose another. You will leave her! That went on for some hours, um, after Janet had died. (SCREAMS) You get out! Get off me! Come on. Come on. I was actually scared. Um,... I said, um, 'You're scaring me,'... and then she said,... 'Well, you're scaring me.' Yeah. They were trying to hold down my arms,... cos I was, like, scratching them, punching and kicking people. And how come you tried to do that? I think it was cos of the demon inside of me. I just went pretty psycho. Did you say anything? Um,... I can't exactly remember,... but I think it was going something like, um,... 'Stop. You're fucking drowning me,' something like that. Um,... 'I'm gonna die.' That's just when it went all blank. It just went all blank. And I think that's when they nearly lost me, when it went all blank. Mm-hm. I don't know,... I actually don't know what the demon looks like. I don't know what they were looking for, what they were seeing and everything. INTENSE MUSIC DOG BARKS About lunchtime or late morning,... KNOCK AT DOOR ...one of the local marae kaumatua was telephoned, and he went round to the flat. A man who they called, uh, Pakeha Dave, who is a white European man,... who, uh, is a spiritual conduit and a man who's spirituality they respected,... he said he... felt a sense of evil... and a spiritual message came through to him,... seemingly from the deceased grandmother. It's gone. INTENSE MUSIC CURTAIN RINGS RATTLE 1 POIGNANT MUSIC It was a desperate plea from a 14-year-old girl, 'Stop it. You're drowning me,' as relatives forced water down her throat during an exorcism. ...te kohurutanga o Janet Moses. ...mo te kohuru i a Janet Moses i te tau makutu. Janet Moses died during a makutu. Killing a young mum. Killing Janet Moses. During an exorcism. Exorcism. Exorcism ceremony. This has been a very controversial case. Torture and death are just not acceptable. I said it does exist. Dissociation. A book by its cover. Witchcraft. The media jumps on` Family members desperate to hide the faces of the accused. Janet was a young mother who lost her life. It is absolutely critical that we understand how this happens and inevitably hold people to account for what has happened. What are the authorities to do... when a human being is killed in those circumstances? There were two charges ` manslaughter and one charge of cruelty to a child. The odd thing about the case was deeply held spiritual Maori beliefs were being aired in... in such a formal, white,... um, colonial, if you like, system. The court bent over backwards... to be sensitive,... but when they described what had happened, it was like reading a scene from the Salem witch trials. The family belief was based on misconceptions and misinformation. None of the expert witnesses had ever heard of pouring... large volumes of water, uh, into the person afflicted as a way of dealing with the makutu. And as it turned out,... the lion was one of a pair of concrete garden ornaments that had been purchased new by the, uh, owner of the hotel. He had smeared yoghurt on the statues to try and weather them and make them look older than they were, but, um, they certainly weren't, um, objects of antiquity at all. I think all of the lawyers involved, both prosecution and defence, could see the family dynamic, and we all felt for these people. Public opinion was divided, but... the jury looked sympathetic. On to breaking news now, and the jury in the Janet Moses exorcism trial in Wellington has just returned with a verdict. Simon? It's been a long wait for that, uh, jury to come back with their verdict, a lot of people at court wanting to hear that verdict. Here's what happened. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. The two family leaders, John Rawiri and Glenys Wright, received community detention allowing them to live at home under a curfew. They and their co-offenders, all aunts of Janet Moses, also sentenced to community service, supervision, and to undertake cultural education programmes. This was a just response to a tragic death. The jury, by their verdicts, held the family members who killed Janet criminally responsible for her death and it's a recognition of the sanctity of life. Typical sentences for manslaughter are four to six years, but, um, none of the justifications for sending people to prison seemed to be present here. There was no deterrent value here. Punishment? Well, what purpose would that serve? And I know a lot of people are very cynical of our system of justice, but as misguided as it appears to us in the cold, hard light of day,... they genuinely believed that they were assisting her. Aua hoki matou e kawea kia whakawaia, engari whakaorangia matou i te kino, nou hoki te rangatiratanga, te kaha, me to kororia, ake, ake, ake,... ALL: ...amine. Must have been about a week after, we had a meeting at the marae. And we all decided to, uh, knock the place down,... knock it down. Oh, it was sad to see that, man. Every morning you get up, and I look straight out my window and see nothing. See nothing. Mm. Yeah. It's bloody, uh,... real sad news. Sometimes you can go past those flats and you can still see a cloud that's above it. You don't do those things. You don't muck around with Maori things. I've heard that they still believe that the curse is alive in their family and it's passed on. It's understandable that they could believe that. Beliefs really are nothing more than conclusions that we have drawn on the basis of our experience. There is still the possibility that a makutu did in fact attack Janet. Nobody knows. They could've been right all along. There's no doubt in my mind she was possessed, be that from a Maori or from a clinical world view. She was unwell. And that curse, it's an attitude of the family continued to carry on with what they will hand on to the future generations is really in their hands. They have to deal with the fact that despite the best that they tried to do for her in that situation, she died. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES CHILDREN LAUGH I didn't know Janet ` I knew Janet through... through the investigation ` so you only ever know Janet through the eyes of other people, from what they tell you. But as a mother myself,... it really resonated with me. We had two young children who,... for the rest of their lives, don't have their mum. In fact, they were so small that the only memory they will ever have of their mother is memories that other people give them of her. She was a wonderful mother ` that's what I would tell them, how much she loved them and how much she cared about them. POIGNANT MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016.