Who decided Tom Phillips was safe enough to leave alone with his kids?

Tom Phillips is dead after a police shooting, and his three children have been found alive. The immediate danger is over. The questions are not.

When Tom Phillips vanished into the bush with his three children in 2021, police framed it as a family matter. He wasn't breaking the law, they said - and largely refused to intervene. It wasn't until more than a year later, after Phillips allegedly robbed a bank, that authorities began to act.

Now, after Phillips was shot dead in a confrontation with police in the King Country this week, information is slowly trickling out about what happened during the family's four years in hiding. The children are in state care. Phillips' bleak campsite has been uncovered. Police are investigating those suspected of helping him evade capture.

But a larger question lingers: who decided Tom Phillips was safe enough to be left alone with his children - and why?

"We are just so lucky those kids are alive," said University of Auckland law professor Carrie Leonetti. "But I want to know what evidence was before the Family Court before he went missing. What did they know? And why did he continue to have unfettered access to children he had already abducted once before?"

Child safety experts told RNZ they also want answers about how Family Court decisions shaped the police's early, hands-off approach to behaviour that was clearly criminal.

"If New Zealand is to learn anything from Tom Phillips' abduction of the children there must be an urgent and full independent inquiry, informed by specialists in family violence, into the entire response to this case," said Backbone Collective co-founder Deborah Mackenzie.

Women's Refuge chief executive Ang Jury said she was surprised an inquiry had not already been announced. "Questions need to be asked."

The Family Court did not answer questions about whether it would review its decision-making, saying only that when making decisions in this case, "the paramount concern of the Family Court will be the welfare and best interests of the children." The Minister of Police Mark Mitchell would not commit to a full inquiry, although police said a review of the investigation would happen, as usual.

What the court knew

Because of the rules surrounding the Family Court, little is known publicly about the custody dispute between Phillips and the children's mother.

By law, reports of Family Court proceedings involving children are prohibited unless the court grants leave. With the children's identities now so widely known, almost all information on the file is automatically suppressed. That means the public cannot know what evidence was put before a judge about Phillips' safety as a parent, what was said about the children's mother, whether psychological assessments were done, or what the children themselves told lawyers.

What is known is the timeline of events - and the public accounts of the children's mother and the children's older sisters - which cast doubt on the portrait of Phillips as a likeable, if unusual, bloke, simply trying to protect his kids.

Jubilee Dawson, one of the sisters, told Mata Reports she believed her siblings' time with Phillips would leave them traumatised and "create nothing but bad memories."

Asked about her former step-father, Dawson paused for a long time before saying "he's very determined".

"I just feel like he didn't like me growing up and anything that made me happy or gave me joy, he didn't like seeing that."

The kids' mum, said Phillips' behaviour wasn't about protecting the children at all.

"He's trying to teach me a lesson," She told the NZ Herald. "He doesn't care for them, they're just pawns in this game."

Storm Dawson, the mother's oldest child, alleged Phillips once lost his gun licence for threatening violence. RNZ has been unable to verify this with police.

In a post on the Facebook page about the missing children, Dawson also recalled hearing him make a chilling promise.

"When I was 15 I heard Tom say that if my mother left him he'd take the kids and she'd never see them again. I brushed it off because it seemed like an empty threat and I had faith in the system. Looking back I don't know why."

The mother eventually did leave. A letter she later released indicates Phillips didn't want to separate - he asks for forgiveness and says they have a family "worth fighting for".

Before Phillips disappeared, the children were living with their grandparents on their Marokopa farm, homeschooled by their father. But their mother was still involved in their lives - the photo released of her with her children was from December 2021. It was one of the last times she'd see them in four years.

What were the decisions?

Leonetti says the family's public statements raise huge questions about what the Family Court was told about Phillips before his first disappearance. Even more critical, she says, are the decisions made afterwards - and what measures, if any, were put in place to stop it happening again.

Phillips first went on the run with the children in September 2021. His Toyota Hilux was found abandoned at Kiritehere Beach, keys under the mat, car seats in the back, parked below the high tide mark and being pummeled by waves. Authorities searched land, air and sea but found no trace.

On 30 September, Phillips and the children reappeared in Marokopa, claiming they had camped in dense bush for the 19 days they were missing.

Jubilee Dawson said she cried when she heard they were back. But when she asked what happened, the children shut down.

"They were told they weren't allowed to talk about their camping trip," she told Mata Reports. "They did say their rice went mouldy. They said they were near water and … did lots of walking. That is all the information they gave us."

Despite the long absence, police did not treat the incident as abduction. Whether Phillips had staged the family's death or whether, as others alleged, someone else had taken the truck and parked it in the water was never resolved. Phillips was charged only with causing wasteful deployment of resources, with a court date set for January.

Ang Jury said that should have been a "a red flag."

"When he pulled that stunt the first time - why wasn't something put in place to keep the kids safe? Surely the police could have weighed in," Jury said.

RNZ understands Oranga Tamariki received several Reports of Concern about the children, both from family and police. The agency did not respond to questions about its involvement.

Later, police would say Phillips did not have custody of the children while on the run. Yet they continued to live with him at the grandparents' home.

"I absolutely don't understand why after September 2021, why he had unsupervised access to those children," Leonetti said. "Why is a prior abduction not treated as a massive risk factor for a future abduction?"

December 2021: the second abduction

In December, Phillips vanished again. The absence was uncovered when the mother phoned on 15 December and was told the grandparents hadn't seen the children in three days. She called police, who did a welfare check, and confirmed the children had gone into the bush with their father. They were five, seven and nine.

The mother tried to file a missing persons report but was told not enough time had passed. After nine days, the children were formally classified missing

This time, police did not mount a wide-ranging search. West Waikato area commander Inspector Will Loughrin told media Phillips was "doing nothing wrong… he notified family of where he was going." Police later clarified he was breaching a custody order.

They said they would "monitor and regularly reassess the situation," but refused to comment further, citing Family Court proceedings.

By 12 January, when Phillips missed his criminal court date, the children had not been seen for 40 days. Yet still there was no major search. It was not until May 2023, when Phillips allegedly robbed a bank in Te Kuiti, that police stepped up their efforts.

The mother said in 2024 she felt the system didn't really care.

"Every step of the way nobody listened to me, I was just ignored, time and time again, minimised, gaslit and yet, look where we are."

Private investigator Chris Budge, who tried to track Phillips, said police appeared reluctant to commit the resources needed.

"But I've always said the police were treating it like a custody case, when I always saw it as parental abduction," Budge said. "There was this decision by default that the children were safe, when no one knew for more than two years if they were even alive."

Jury said the police response reflected an outdated belief that custody disputes were a "private family matter" - even when behaviour was clearly criminal or violent.

"That idea is really sad, and in this case, really dangerous."

A wider pattern

Experts say the Marokopa story is not an anomaly. Instead, it fits a broader pattern where children's safety is minimised and mothers' concerns dismissed.

A strikingly similar case occurred in 2017, when Alan Langdon kidnapped his six-year-old daughter Que and took her by small boat to Australia, breaching a Family Court order. Langdon, who had a history of disappearing with Que, was treated in the media as an adventurer. Her mother had to hire a child recovery expert to bring her home.

Backbone's Deborah Mackenzie says the Family Court's influence extends beyond custody orders.

"The court also influences how other statutory organisations intervene - or don't - when protective parents raise genuine safety concerns for their children while in the care of an abusive parent," she said.

"It is imperative that we understand in what ways the system enabled Phillips' actions and then urgently reform our courts, and the wider response organisations to prevent this ever happening again."

A police spokesperson said its investigation would be reviewed, as was standard procedure.

"Police's concern throughout this investigation has been the safety of the children, with the focus being the safe return of them," the statement said.

Police minister Mark Mitchell refused to answer questions about the police response, or commit to a full inquiry. He said there were other reviews underway, including a Coroner's case, the ongoing police investigation, and an IPCA investigation, and the government would wait for the results of those.

Principal Family Court Judge Jacquelyn Moran said in a statement that she acknowledged people had followed this case for a number of years and held well intentioned concerns about the children, but there were clear rules about confidentiality that prioritised the welfare of the children. The children were currently in the guardianship of the Family Court, with Oranga Tamariki as the agent of the court, she said.

List of unanswered questions:

Police:

Were police concerned about the safety of the children after Phillips disappeared the first time? If so, did they take any formal action ie. Did they file a ROC with Oranga Tamariki, or provide evidence for the Family Court?

Did police consider charging Phillips with kidnapping the first time he disappeared (in 2021)?

When Phillips disappeared the second time (Dec 2021) did police consider the children were safe? If so, why? What was that based on. If not, why did they not immediately search for the children?

At what point did police decide the children were unsafe?

Did Phillips have a firearms licence? If not, why was it revoked? Did that factor into their decisions about his safety?

Police Minister Mark Mitchell:

Will he initiate a review of the police investigation into the Phillips case, including the first abduction, and particularly the initial lack of police response in December 2021 on this basis "it's a custody issue before the Family Court"?

Does he believe police conducted a proper risk assessment of the safety of the children in forming its initial response?

What is the government's explanation for the lack of decisive response in high-risk child abduction cases like Tom Phillips?

Does he believe women can have confidence in a system that appears to fail to accurately identify parental abduction cases as family violence and respond appropriately?

Oranga Tamariki:

Did Oranga Tamariki have any involvement in the case prior to Phillips taking the children in December 2021?

Did it receive any affidavits from family?

Did it receive any reports of concern from police?

When did Oranga Tamariki get custody of the children and what is the order?

Family Court

Will the Court review the file and decision-making in regard to the safety of the Phillips children?