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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A former Salvation Army
officer will face 28 charges of sexual violation and other indecencies
relating to his time as manager of the Bramwell Booth Salvation Army
Childrens Home in Temuka in the 1970s. John Francis Gainsford,
69, retired, of Auckland, has now been committed for trial on the charges
which have arisen out of alleged offending between January 1973 and January
1975. The seven complainants were all young people living at the Temuka home.
The High Court trial is
expected to be held in Timaru later this year. Timaru police have been
investigating the complaints for the last year. Back in May 2005 the
church confirmed at least some of the five people who had gone to it 20
months earlier alleging abuse at the Bramwell Booth home, had laid complaints
with the police. The initial complaints
to the church, made by four men and a woman, claimed they had been both
physically and sexually abused. The police
investigations into Gainsford's alleged offending are continuing, Detective
Tracey Miron of the Timaru CIB said yesterday. A Salvation Army
spokesman confirmed Gainsford had ceased his officership with the army
shortly after he left the Bramwell Booth home. Although the exact dates he
had ceased his role with the church were unavailable yesterday, the spokesman
understood it was in the mid 1970s. The Temuka home catered
for boys from 1916 to 1989, with girls also living there from January 1969.
The home cared for orphans, children referred by welfare agencies and wards
of the state. |
