Inquiry into New Zealand man who hid his kids in forest for years blasts officials

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A major inquiry into the case of New Zealand man Tom Phillips, who hid his children in dense forest for years before he died in a police shootout, has criticized officials for not taking seriously enough the harms and risks to the children early in the saga of their disappearance. The public inquiry — which is a formal, independent investigation of matters of significant importance in New Zealand — was launched in November 2025 to scrutinize how government agencies handled the case. It was prompted by outrage about how a father involved in court proceedings was able to evade authorities for almost four years, while forcing his children to live in rugged, squalid conditions in remote countryside without access to health care or education. The inquiry's report, released Tuesday, said the harms caused by Phillips isolating his children were “underplayed, minimised or overlooked” for “significant periods” by the police and New Zealand's child protection agency, Oranga Tamariki. Concerns raised by the children's mother and her relatives were "often minimised as being part of a parenting dispute,” the report added.When Phillips vanished with his children — then...