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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The Attorney General says
the Crown is currently investigating 62 allegations of past abuse of patients
at psychiatric hospitals. Margaret Wilson issued
a statement on Monday afternoon in response to claims by former patients on
the Sunday programme that they were physically abused by staff at Porirua
Hospital in the 1960s and 1970s. A former nurse accused
of abusing mental health patients as young as eight in Porirua Hospital is
denying any knowledge of violence or abuse at the institution. The anti-violence
campaigner Jim Moriarty is threatening legal action over allegations of abuse
by former patients on TVNZ's Sunday programme. Moriarty, who was a
trainee nurse at the time, says he has no recollection of hitting an
eight-year-old with a wet towel or beating another boy unconscious. He says
the second patient admits to having hallucinations around the same time. Moriarty says the
former patients are trying to make money. The Sunday
investigation revealed that children as young as eight were placed in a
psychiatric institution because no one close to them knew how to control
their behaviour. Many of the children
were from broken homes and in the care of child welfare and many ended up in
Porirua Hospital - New Zealand's largest psychiatric institution in the 1960s
and 70s. Now those children are
adults and they say they are emotionally scarred by their childhood
experiences. They told Sunday they
never suffered from mental illness as children and were simply victims of
circumstance and the social and health systems of the day. A group of them have
begun a class action against the government - seeking an inquiry and
compensation. And in statements of
claim before the High Court they name former staff of the hospital who they
say physically and mentally abused them when they were at their most
vulnerable. Wilson says legal
claims being looked at include some from Porirua Hospital and she says she
expects another 44 claims to be filed. A lawyer representing
79 former patients who claim they were abused at Porirua Hospital says the
volume of claims should force a government inquiry. Sonja Cooper has called
for an inquiry to be set up into the alleged abuses and for compensation to
be paid - as was done for patients of Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital. Cooper says more than
100 former mental health patients claim they were physically and sexually
abused at the hospital during the 1960s and 70s. She says 53 claims have been
filed with the High Court, and there will be at least twice that. Cooper says the
government should fund a full inquiry. Wilson says no decision
will be made on that until the Crown has completed its investigation. |
