• Selica Romana Wright was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for torturing a boy over 10 months.
• The abuse included stabbing him, pouring boiling water on him and twice forcing the boy to eat faeces.
• Judge Kirsten Lummis described the abuse as unique in its extreme levels of sadism and premeditated violence.

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT

A West Auckland woman who repeatedly subjected a boy to horrific torture – including stabbing him with a chef’s knife and a screwdriver, forcing him to eat faeces, pouring boiling water on to him and encouraging him to commit suicide – has been ordered to serve a lengthy term of imprisonment.

Selica Romana Wright, 34, came to the Auckland District Court with a letter of apology this afternoon as she appeared before Judge Kirsten Lummis. Prosecutors, however, were adamant that she remains unrepentant – using her own words in intercepted letters from prison to prove their point.

“Haha. Do it all again in a heartbeat,” she wrote.

“No regrets for me, only that I didn’t do it properly. LOL.”

Selica Wright's prolonged abuse of a minor included burning him, stabbing him, hitting him with a hammer and making him eat her soiled toilet paper. Photo / Alex Burton

Judge Lummis noted that the defence took issue with the term torture, so she read the definition aloud in court.

“In my view, that term is entirely appropriate,” she concluded, describing the “extreme violence and sadistic nature” of the offending as at a level rarely seen in New Zealand courts.

“It is clear [the victim] would like you to be locked up as long as possible.”

She ordered a sentence of 10 and a half years of imprisonment.

The Glen Eden resident was arrested in October 2023, after the young teenager escaped to a neighbour’s house and asked for help. His injuries, including a broken spine, were so numerous and disturbing that he was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Court documents state the abuse had taken place over a roughly 10-month period.

It started in January 2023 with her slapping or kicking him when “angry over insignificant events” or “problems with her private life”, but the “frequency and the seriousness of the assaults steadily increased” to the point where she would attack him with weapons, according to the agreed summary of facts for the case.

The abuse began to ramp up significantly in August 2023.

Around that time Wright began beating the victim with a metal vacuum cleaner pipe, whacking him on the body and the head with such force the pipe was damaged beyond repair. Wright bought a replacement pipe and also used it for subsequent attacks, court documents state, noting that they numbered at least five before her arrest.

Auckland woman Selica Wright admitted torturing the youth for months, repeatedly hitting him with a hammer, pouring boiling water over him and stabbing him with a chef's knife and a screwdriver.

Also during that time, Wright bought a hammer to repair damaged walls but ended up using it at least five times in her ongoing campaign of abuse.

“[He] was struck about the head, body, legs, knees, feet, back, arms and his hands,” court documents state. “[He] sustained multiple deep circular bruises from being struck with the hammerhead. [His] hands were bruised and cut from hammer blows. One of his fingers was broken. His feet were bruised and swollen from being hit repeatedly with the hammer.”

On two other occasions, Wright attacked him with a sword and a spade. She used the flat surface and the pommel of the sword to inflict multiple blows. The flat surface of the spade was used to hit his head but the sharp edge was used to poke at his arms and stomach.

On another occasion, police said, Wright turned on the victim after he spilt some frozen vegetables while cleaning out a freezer. The defendant grabbed a screwdriver and began counting down from five as he scrambled to clean up the accidental spill.

“Ms Wright pushed [the victim] down on the ground and then stabbed him in the back of his head with the screwdriver,” the agreed summary of facts states. “She pushed the screwdriver into his head until it made a bleeding hole in the skin. The hole would not stop bleeding for several days.”

She then, after several days, tried to glue the wound shut with a “heavy-duty constriction adhesive”. She later tried to remove the glue by pouring petrol over it. When that didn’t work, she repeatedly sprayed Janola on the wound, causing the victim to scream in pain.

The victim believed his broken spine was the result of another attack when she accused him of not using enough soap while washing the clothes. She pushed him with such force that it left two holes in a bathroom wall then beat him with her fists and a length of wood. The victim recalled to police being left bloodied and unable to use his arm for several days.

On another occasion, Wright was angry for a reason unknown to the victim and told him to turn on the jug as he washed dishes. When the water began to boil, she began to splash water on him. When he tried to duck to avoid the water, she tipped the jug on to him, severely burning his back and arm.

She later noticed the burn-damaged skin and told him it was ugly before again spraying his wounds with Janola.

“I don’t give a f***,” she responded, spraying the cleaning solvent into his face and mouth when he began to scream and say it hurt.

Another time she used a chef’s knife to stab him “about the body”, including a wound deep enough to cause air to enter his chest cavity.

In the final month before her arrest, Wright told the youth he should kill himself via hanging. When he refused, she threatened to forcibly hang him.

While she didn’t follow through on the homicide threat, in the final week before her arrest she began to fixate on faeces, carrying out for the first time what had previously been only threats. At one point, she stood over him and threatened to hit him with a hammer until he ate dog faeces. She then refused to let him drink water afterwards.

Later, he went to a nearby relative’s house and was given a glass of water to rinse out his mouth. When Wright learned of it, she beat him with the hammer anyway.

The final blitz of terror came early on a Sunday morning, on October 22, 2023. The teen was ordered to take Wright’s dog for a daily run but he was unable to keep up that day due to the recent beatings so he walked the dog instead.

“I’m over this,” Wright said in a rage upon learning of the walk, ordering the victim to retrieve a claw hammer.

She then hit him in the shoulders and chest until he fell to the ground, unable to take breaths. After the beating, she made him eat her soiled toilet paper. He complied, but when he started to vomit she began to stomp on his face, stomach and legs.

She then thrust the end of the hammer at his mouth forcefully and repeatedly until a front tooth snapped and he began to bleed. Later that day, he ran to a neighbour’s home and asked for help after Wright had left to run some errands.

Wright pleaded guilty last year to two counts of injuring with intent to injure and three counts of assault with a weapon, all punishable by up to five years imprisonment; one count of wounding with intent to injure, punishable by up to seven years imprisonment; one count of ill-treatment or neglect of a child under 18 years, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment; and two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment.

Many of the charges were representative, meaning they encapsulated multiple attacks of the same nature.

At hospital, medical professionals found seven fractures over multiple areas of the teen’s body, as well as widespread bruising, cuts, burns and puncture wounds.

Selica Wright's abuse of the teen was described by the judge as unique in its extreme levels of sadism. Photo / Alex Burton

“At no point in the period of offending did Ms Wright seek medical attention for [the victim], who was clearly injured and in need of medical assistance,” police noted.

During today’s hearing, defence lawyer Richard Slade asked the judge to put aside the prison letters, which he described as posturing to a pen pal and not reflective of his client’s true feelings.

He acknowledged that Wright also appeared to deny most of her offending to a pre-sentence report writer despite having pleaded guilty. But the jail had failed to provide her meds on the week of the interview, he said, adding that she “doesn’t stand by those comments” and was no way “shirking responsibility”.

“There are elements of genuine remorse there,” he said. “This is early on down the track of rehabilitation. There’s a long road ahead for Ms Wright.”

The judge, however, was sceptical.

She noted that in the defendant’s own apology letter to the court, she described having “ticked boxes” and “pretended” during past attempts at anger management but promised this time she was making real strides.

She described the prison letters as “both disturbing and deplorable”, pointing to another passage where the woman boasted she “nearly took him out” but the child survived.

“One day I will get to finish what I started, but for now I’m here,” she wrote. “Many have offered to do it for me, but that’s my victory to be had.”

Auckland District Court Judge Kirsten Lummis. Photo / Alex Burton

The judge said she couldn’t put the letters to one side.

“It is hard not to view your expressions of remorse very cynically,” she said, denying Wright a discount off her sentence for remorse.

The judge did, however, allow discounts totalling 25% for the defendant’s guilty pleas, her troubled upbringing and the effects of imprisonment on her young child.

The judge agreed with a proposal by Crown prosecutor Fiona Culliney that a minimum term of imprisonment was necessary to protect the abuse victim and the community and to denounce the conduct.

“The pain that child must have suffered at her hand is nothing short of devastating,” Culliney said, emphasising that there was very little case law to cite at the hearing because there are so few times the court has dealt with child abuse of such a persistent, premeditated and extreme nature.

Crown prosecutor Fiona Culliney pictured during sentencing for a separate case at the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The judge ordered Wright to serve at least half of the sentence before she would be eligible to start applying for parole. Inmates are usually eligible after one-third of their sentence.

Wright had been on authorities’ radar during the same time she was committing the horrific violence in 2023.

She had been sentenced to 12 months of intensive supervision in Waitākere District Court in April that year for threatening to kill a police officer and posting a harmful digital communication.

“I’ll go and get a gun and shoot you in the face,” she told a detective in 2022, also calling the woman a “pig” before dialling 111 and repeating her threat to shoot her and her children.

She would later tell a judge she meant no harm by it, but that assertion too was met with scepticism.

“You need to understand the impact of what you do and what you say,” Judge Robyn von Keisenberg told her at the time. “They are not just words, they cause real harm to people and they don’t deserve it.”

As a condition of her intensive supervision, Wright was ordered to attend any anger management programmes or counselling as ordered by her probation officer.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.

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WHERE TO GET HELP

If you're in danger now: • Phone the police on 111 or ask neighbours or friends to ring for you.• Run outside and head for where there are other people. Scream for help so your neighbours can hear you.
• Take the children with you. Don't stop to get anything else.
• If you are being abused, remember it's not your fault. Violence is never okay.
Where to go for help or more information:• Women's Refuge: Crisis line - 0800 REFUGE or 0800 733 843 (available 24/7)
• Shine: Helpline - 0508 744 633 (available 24/7)
• It's Not Ok: Family violence information line - 0800 456 450
• Shakti: Specialist services for African, Asian and Middle Eastern women and children.
• Crisis line - 0800 742 584 (available 24/7)
• Ministry of Justice: For information on family violence
• Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga: National Network of Family Violence Services
• White Ribbon: Aiming to eliminate men's violence towards women.
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