The Kane Watson Givealittle fight isn’t going away
The pregnant partner of a young dad killed in a beach tragedy has gone to the High Court after a family feud led to her being cut from receiving any funds donated to Givealittle after his death.
Devoted dad Kane Hanna Watson died in hospital on August 25, two days after a sand dune collapsed on him while he was digging a hole at Muriwai Beach.
The accident happened in front of his pregnant partner Jasmine Cooke, their daughter, and some of Cooke’s three older children, who he was helping to raise.
More than $30,000 was raised in a subsequent online appeal from 835 donors – with the funds due to be released by Givealittle late Friday.
But Jasmine Cooke gained an interim freezing order from the High Court after a wrangle over the donations had seen her excluded from receiving a share.
Following the beach tragedy, a Givealittle page was launched by a friend of the Watson family to help raise funds for funeral expenses and “related costs”.
For the first two weeks – the majority of the time the page was live – it featured a picture of Watson with one of Cooke’s children, and revealed the 28-year-old’s partner was also pregnant with their second child together.
When TDB did an exclusive on this terrible case, we were threatened with defamation, however the NZ Herald with their huge legal team has written a story on it which means we can comment freely on the issue.
The manner in which this terrible situation has become toxic between estranged family members in the wake of the tragic death of Kane Watson has highlighted serious issues with Givealittle.
TDB contacted Givealittle about the concerns raised with us by Kane’s widow and this was their response to us:
Givealittle is a neutral online platform for fundraising that allows individuals, schools, and charities to create fundraising pages for a wide variety of causes.
In the case of this page, which was set up to raise funds for the funeral of Kane Watson by a friend of his sister, the initial donation goal was far exceeded, necessitating an update to donors on how the additional funds will be used.
As per Givealittle’s terms and conditions, where initial fundraising goals and needs are met and exceeded, page owners must provide an update to donors about the use of funds. Givealittle places the update on the page based on instructions and permission from the page owner. The decisions on the distribution of these additional funds (those raised above the original goal) rest with the page owner.
Any further enquiries in relation to the distribution of funds in this case should be directed to the page owner.
I think the vast majority of those who donated believed the money would go to Kane’s widow and children, the fact that it has become a toxic bitter fight over the money raised would make many question ever donating to Givealittle ever again.
The issue is now in front of the High Court, let’s hope this painful situation can be settled before Christmas as Kane’s widow is due to give birth to Kane’s child then.
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Let’s not credit this to Givealittle. Givealittle is not an independent entity. They are owned by Perpetual Guardian NZ.
If you use Perpetual Guardian’s services, you are supporting this decision to screw over the mother and kids.