This story is about a 22 year old Maori woman, Janet Moses, who had two children by her partner for nine years, one Andre Lambert. Following the death of her grandmother, Gwendoline Rawiri, Janet apparently showed signs of mental illness. Her relationship with her partner had deteriorated due to his alcohol use, failure to support the children, and an affair. The family attributed this to demonic possession, related to the fact that Janet's sister and other family members had stolen a stone lion from a Greytown pub a few weeks earlier, perhaps as an alcohol-fueled prank. The family had limited connection to the traditional culture, and appears to have made up their own exorcism ceremony as they went along: a number of witnesses testified the ceremony did not match known traditional ceremonies. One of the family members claimed to have been "blanked out" during the period Janet died.... Janet Moses' partner has told the High Court at Wellington he was not allowed to see her in the days leading up to her death. The 22-year-old died during a curse lifting ceremony in Wainuiomata in 2007. The trial continues for the nine people charged with her manslaughter. Andre Lambert had been in a relationship with Ms Moses for around nine years and they had two children together. He told the court he last saw her nearly a week before her death, before she was taken to her uncle's house and he was told she was under a makutu ...
Partner banned from makutu ceremony
The former partner of Janet Moses says he was banned from seeing her in days before her death, in a curse lifting ceremony
3 June 2009
http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=100953&fm=newsmain,nrhl... Charlie Moses, Janet's paternal grandfather, said .... At first, he said, he felt hatred toward the family members who performed the fatal ritual, but hatred had been replaced by regret and sadness. "We've made our peace with them. They didn't know what they were doing, even though I told them not to go down that road ..." On the night of the curse-lifting ceremony he had stopped his granddaughter's former partner, Andre Lambert, from entering the house, an action he now deeply regrets, as he believes he would have tried to stop the ceremony. "He could have saved her life. I made the mistake of keeping him out of that room. That's one mistake I badly regret" ...
Five guilty over curse-lifting death
June 13, 2009
http://www.smh.com.au/world/five-guilty-over-curselifting-death-20090613-c6hu.html... Andre Lambert was the father of Janet Moses' two small daughters. A warrant was issued for his arrest last week when he failed to answer a summons to give evidence in the High Court at Wellington. His name has often been mentioned during the trial, which is in its fifth week, mostly for what witnesses have said was the way he mistreated Ms Moses, for drinking too much, and not supporting her enough in the care of their children, but also for the affair he had with another member of her extended family not long before she died in October 2007. He confirmed in court today that he had been arrested in the South Island and brought to give evidence. When Ms Moses became unresponsive to him about a week before she died, he assumed she was "pissed off" at him for drinking when he was looking after their daughters, but then he saw she was treating everyone the same way ...
Makutu victim's partner arrested
The Dominion Post
Last updated 15:47 03/06/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2468432/Victim-sought-dead-grandmother... The family of Ms Moses did not mean to kill her but eight of her uncles and aunts did just that, Crown prosecutor Grant Burston told the High Court at Wellington yesterday. They misinterpreted signs of emerging mental illness as demonic possession resulting from a curse, and made up their own exorcism ceremony as they went along, he said ...
Makutu family 'made up ritual as they went along'
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 10/06/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2486538/Makutu-family-made-up-ritual-as-they-went-alongJanet Moses tragedy will not deter Maori from makutu ritual - Tuhoe elder
Tuhoe elder
Sat, 13 Jun 2009 5:43p.m.
... The five were trying to lift a Maori curse, believing there were demons inside Moses because her sister had stolen a stone lion from a hotel in Greytown. The defence argued they had misinterpreted what was actually a mental illness after the breakdown of her relationship and grief over her grandmother's death ... The Reed Maori Dictionary's definition of a Makutu is "bewitched or black magic" - but Tuhoe spokesman Tamati Cairns says it's more like counselling and that the incident will not put Maori off continuing the practice ...
http://www.3news.co.nz/News/NationalNews/Janet-Moses-tragedy-will-not-deter-Maori-from-makutu-ritual---Tuhoe-elder-/tabid/423/articleID/108472/cat/64/Default.aspx... He was phoned about 4.30pm and told that Janet had been "lost". He said he was gutted when he went to the flat to learn that she had died about 8am and that he had not been told ... The jury also heard yesterday from Ms Moses' sister Georgina, who said she did not know why she took a concrete lion statue from the Greytown Hotel a few weeks before her sister's death ...
Father wasn't told of makutu death
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 23/05/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2434854/Father-wasn-t-told-of-makutu-death... In a series of statements that police began collecting from the accused later the same night the picture emerged of an intensely close, large family unit which, although not generally having formal close links to their Maori heritage or an organised religion, nevertheless had strong cultural and spiritual beliefs. But the death of the whanau matriarch, Gwendoline Rawiri, about six weeks before, had left a vacuum ...
A woman drowned by too much love
The Dominion Post
Last updated 10:38 13/06/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2497540/A-woman-drowned-by-too-much-love... Earlier today, an expert in Tainui iwi culture told the jury that the water-based cleansing ceremony was misguided, misinformed and mistaken. Dr Tui Adams said Ms Moses' family had done the right thing in consulting a kaumatua in October 2007 when her behaviour led them to believe she was affected by a makutu or curse. The actions of the kaumatua in blessing her and returning a lion statue that was believed to be associated with the curse were correct but after the kaumatua left the family started a process that had no cultural basis and was totally foreign to Dr Adams ...
Water ceremony was 'weird'
The Dominion Post
Last updated 16:10 18/05/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2420682/Water-ceremony-was-weird... Dr Adams said there was no specific water cleansing process in Maori culture. He had never encountered parts of the ceremony performed on Ms Moses before, which he described as "extreme". Alien aspects included the use of force, not allowing anyone to leave the house, not allowing them to sleep or close their eyes, using a crutch as a taiaha and pouring water in the eyes. Neither had he heard of the idea that evil spirits could invade a person if they looked into someone's eyes ...
Maori exorcism family's efforts 'misguided'
Mon, 18 May 2009
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/56659/maori-exorcism-family039s-efforts-039misguided039... In the High Court at Wellington yesterday Dr Rees Tapsell said it was likely mother of two Janet Moses had an underlying psychiatric or psychological disorder. Its onset seemed to coincide with the death of her grandmother and problems in her relationship with her partner. Nine members of the family are charged with Ms Moses' manslaughter at a Wainuiomata flat in October 2007. Dr Tapsell, a consultant forensic psychiatrist who has specialised in Maori mental health, said he had never heard or seen anything like the ceremony that has been described as being performed on Ms Moses ...
Makutu victim probably mentally ill
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 28/05/2009
... Demons like "balls of red jelly" marked the eyes of two young women "cleansed" to remove evil spirits from them, a jury has been told. Neil Wharepapa, a cousin of Janet Moses, who died during the ritual at Wainuiomata in October 2007, said one of his aunts, Glenys Wright, claimed to have seen demons jumping into the eyes of innocent people. Mr Wharepapa told a jury in the High Court at Wellington yesterday that he saw demons like balls of red jelly in the eyes of Ms Moses and a 14-year-old girl. Two of his aunts checked his eyes but he had no demons ...
Witness 'saw demons like balls of red jelly'
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 20/05/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2424798/Witness-saw-demons-like-balls-of-red-jelly... he also said that once he found out Ms Moses had died he knew he had to get someone to intervene in what was happening. He phoned relatives who brought a healer to the house to bless them. The healer also said the younger girl had to be taken to a doctor as soon as possible. Earlier today the court heard that one of the six women charged with the manslaughter Ms Moses told police the spirit of dead relatives had come through her around the time of the death ... Rawiri told police that in the day or two before the death she had "blanks", during which she was told later the spirits of her dead mother-in-law and infant son had come through her ...
Claim curse ceremony saved girl
The Dominion Post
Last updated 15:50 28/05/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2452975/Claim-curse-ceremony-saved-girl... Rawiri told police she remembered little of the ritual. She was told the spirits of her recently dead mother-in-law and long-dead infant son "came through her" but this was a blank to her. Rawiri said she felt like she was in the room with "demons". She recalled Ms Moses being alive on October 11. She had seen her talking to her cousins in the late afternoon but did not remember seeing her again until the following day, when she had already died. When she came to, the carpet was soaked and the flat a mess, she told police, and whatever had happened was not the work of human beings ...
Death 'not work of human beings'
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 29/05/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/2454749/Death-not-work-of-human-beings... Justice Simon France said for a guilty verdict the jury would have to decide that the pair consciously appreciated what was happening to the 14-year-old girl in their care would be likely to cause her unnecessary suffering.
Exorcism case jurors ask for clarification
11:32AM Friday Jun 12, 2009
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10578049... Ms Moses' consent to the cleansing ceremony, or her family's honest belief in consent, was a central issue for the jury to decide. Even an illogical or unreasonable belief that Janet Moses consented would lead to her family's acquittal, lawyer Greg King said for Aroha and Hall Wharepapa. Steve Winter, for Gaylene and Alfred Kepa, said the Kepas did not hide that Alf filled water containers for the ceremony and Gaylene poured water on Ms Moses. The crucial issue for them was consent, that the Crown could not exclude the possibility Ms Moses was consenting and that the Kepas believed she was ...
Lion curse lifted, jury told
The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 11/06/2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/national-news/2489873/Lion-curse-lifted-jury-told
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