Police launch photographs of website the place New Zealand bushman hid kids

Police have launched the primary photos of what they consider is one in every of many campsites the place a New Zealand father on the run hid together with his three kids for years.

Two of Tom Phillips’ kids have been discovered on the website within the Waikato area on Monday, hours after he was killed in a shootout with the police.

Police discovered them with the assistance of the third baby, who was with Phillips when he died. They mentioned the youngsters are “doing well”, however will take time to get better from the ordeal.

Shortly earlier than Christmas in 2021, Phillips disappeared together with his kids – Jayda, Maverick, and Ember, then aged eight, seven and 5 respectively. Police consider he did so after dropping authorized custody of them.

Phillips had “no regard” for the youngsters’s security and “quite literally put [them] in harm’s way”, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers instructed the media on Tuesday, including that they’re now within the care of authorities.

A stash of firearms and ammunition have been additionally discovered on the campsite, which is surrounded by dense vegetation. Two quad bikes are pictured parked amongst timber.

By the time authorities arrived on the website, the seek for the 2 kids had been beneath method for practically 12 hours.

In the early hours of Monday, police responded to a report of an tried housebreaking at a rural farm provide store within the small city of Piopio. And that’s the place they entered right into a shootout with Mr Phillips. An officer was critically injured after Phillips fired at him with a high-powered rifle. Mr Chambers mentioned police have “absolutely no doubt” it was supposed to kill the officer.

The injured officer has undergone a sequence of surgical procedures however nonetheless has a protracted highway to restoration forward of him, Mr Chambers mentioned.

Phillips’ case has gripped New Zealand for the reason that day he turned a fugitive practically 4 years in the past, and though Monday’s occasions recommend the thriller has drawn to a detailed, police are nonetheless searching for solutions.

They are looking for out how Phillips, believed to be in his late 30s this 12 months, evaded seize regardless of a nationwide search and a number of sightings – and, crucially, how he was in a position to entry firearms.

Authorities didn’t handle reporters’ questions on Tuesday about whether or not the youngsters’s mom, recognized in information reviews solely as Cat, and members of Phillips’ prolonged household are in contact with the youngsters.

“Our priority is to make sure these children are looked after and that there is a careful plan, with everyone becoming involved at the right time,” Police Minister Mark Mitchell mentioned.

“They have seen and been exposed to things that children in our country should not be.”

Warwick Morehu from New Zealand’s Ministry for Children added, “These children will be provided with whatever help or assistance they need, for however long they may need it”.

On Monday, the youngsters’s mom was quoted by native media outlet RNZ as saying she was “deeply relieved” that “this ordeal has come to an end” after lacking her kids dearly “every day for nearly four years”.

But, she continued: “We are saddened by how events unfolded today.”