The face of evil: Black Power’s Drummond Leaf charged with Catalya’s murder

Some of you will remember when I launched my campaign Kāti Te Kohuru Tamariki - Stop Murdering Children. It was born out of outrage. The brutal killing of a beautiful, innocent toddler in Kaikohe lit a fire in many of us. Her name was Catalya Tangimetua-Pepene. She was just two years old.

Now a man stands accused of her murder. His name is Drummond Leaf, a 45-year-old from Kaikohe.

Wanting to know more about him, I searched his name on Facebook. Several profiles came up, but one stood out. In his bio he writes

"Born n breed South Side Papakura but now I've been living under the roof of Ngāpuhi for some time now."

The photos on his page are just what I imagined. They show him wearing Black Power gang patches, posing with his fist in the air, dressed head to toe in gang colours. He is not hiding who he is. In fact, he appears proud of it.

So here we have it. Another violent gang member, this time from Black Power, which is New Zealand’s second largest gang and made up predominantly of Māori. He is the man now accused of murdering an innocent little girl.

Whenever a Māori is caught in crime, the go-to excuse from Te Pāti Māori, the Greens and Labour is always the same. Colonisation. They roll it out like a default script. I wonder if they will say the same about Drummond. Will they apologise for him too?

The real victim is Catalya. Not the man accused of killing her. Not the community that enabled him. And certainly not the politicians who make excuses every time this happens.

This country has buried too many children. Malachi Subecz. The Kahui twins. Nia Glassie. All failed by the ones who are meant to protect them.

But where is the outrage now? Where are the speeches in Parliament? Where are the marches in the street?

When the killer fits a certain narrative, they all go quiet.

This is what happens when you protect gangs more than kids. When race politics becomes more important than justice. When excuses replace accountability.

Kāti Te Kohuru Tamariki will not stop. Not until this country wakes up to the cost of its silence.

I will keep going. Because clearly, no one else will

The mainstream media aren’t rushing to dig through Drummond Leaf’s online profiles. They’re not plastering his face across the headlines…