As an example of life in contemporary New Zealand in June 2006, the Kahui case has exposed much that a very large portion of New Zealand would still rather know nothing about.
While fictions such as television's Outrageous Fortune may illustrate life as it is lived by some people for whom "the law" and basic moral standards are entities as remote as the distant planets, real life as it is lived by a great many of the younger residents of Mangere in South Auckland is no figment of the imagination, and cannot be turned off by pressing a button on the TV remote.
Evidence given during the trial of Chris Kahui for the murder or manslaughter of his twin sons was, quite simply, a horrifying picture of that life.
The "family", if such a word can be employed, did not live in poverty in any acceptable meaning of that term.
Some $2000 a week was available from the state benefits paid to the twins' parents and their relatives who occupied, at various times, their state-provided house.
There was certainly sufficient money for the many drug and alcohol parties at the house, and the boys' mother, Macsyna King, admitted in evidence that she was a user of the methamphetamine drug "P".
The behaviour of the family on the night one boy, Cru, stopped breathing, is illustrative of attitudes in the house.
His mother was absent, out drinking with a friend.
Although the boy's lips were blue and his eyes rolled backwards, neither his father or the other three adults in the house thought anything was wrong.
Only on the following day did the parents decide to take the child to a doctor, but with no sense of urgency - they stopped and had breakfast at McDonald's.
The doctor ordered them to take both twins to hospital immediately; instead, the parents went shopping, then went home, where Mr Kahui left the house "in a rage".
Ms King eventually arrived at the hospital 17 hours after her baby had stopped breathing.
When she telephoned the boys' father to tell him both his sons would probably die, he said "whatever", and returned to his PlayStation game.
That the twins' lives were clearly endangered from the time they first left the hospital's neonatal unit and were taken home was supported by medical evidence suggesting they had been subject to a great deal of brutality.
This - like so many others in today's New Zealand - was not a household where traditional "family values" existed in any sense.
It needs also to be remembered that when the police investigation began, after hospital authorities had reported the full extent of the twins' injuries, they were met with a "code of silence" and a total lack of co-operation from any family members who could throw light on the matter.
Nor was there any forensic evidence to assist the Crown case.
Eventually, after a long investigation, Mr Kahui was charged and now, after hearing evidence over six weeks, the jury has found sufficient "reasonable doubt" existed to acquit him.
It is obvious that, in reaching its decision in only 10 minutes, members of the jury could not have been influenced by the judge's summing-up, since they could not have had the time to give his advice any consideration.
The police decided Ms King had sufficient alibi and so did not charge her; that left the father as the principal suspect.
So now someone has got away with murder of the foulest kind.
Nothing will change that unless and until those who know what really happened speak out.
Our justice system quite properly allows anyone accused of a crime to remain silent, for it is the job of the police, who have wide powers, to produce evidence that may lead to a conviction.
If nothing else, this case proves that violence thrives in secrecy and crime will flourish when no individual is prepared to take action to prevent it.
Where most fathers would seek medical help for a baby who had stopped breathing, Mr Kahui did not and nor did anyone else.
All must be included in that "code of silence" when brutality stalked the nursery; when "whatever" was the only guarantee of safety for the Kahui twins.
That is for their consciences to live with, but parents have brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, aunts and cousins, grandmothers and grandfathers, neighbours, friends and acquaintances.
And although each person in that household was loyal to each other, no-one was loyal to the two three-month-old babies.
Governments cannot solve family breakdowns, preserve the "traditional family" or reduce the conflicts that exist behind closed minds, bolted doors and curtained windows.
Child abuse is indeed the hidden sickness of our society: physical and sexual attacks, violence in the home, bullying at school, emotional or physical neglect, a lack of stable or adequate care - and whatever label may be appended, parenting failures lie at the heart of it.
