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Allegations of Abuse
in Institutions |
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A former Temuka woman who said she
saw a Salvation Army officer indecently touching a young girl 30 years ago
only learned he was being prosecuted when she read an on-line copy of the
Herald three days ago. It was by chance she saw a story
about John Francis Gainsford's trial on Tuesday morning, but Christina Cullen
(nee Adams) was so concerned when she realised the accused was the same
person involved in an incident she had witnessed that she immediately
contacted police. Mrs Cullen, of Hawera, was giving
evidence in the High Court at Timaru yesterday on the fourth day of
Gainsford's trial on 23 charges – three charges of rape, one of attempted
rape, 10 of indecently assaulting girls under 12, three charges of doing an
indecent act on a girl under 12, inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent
act (two charges), indecent assault on a girl aged 12-16 (two charges) and
two charges of indecently assaulting a boy under 16. At the start of the trial he
pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent assault on a girl aged under 12,
and inducing a girl then aged under 12 to do an indecent act on him. The offences are alleged to have
taken place between January 1973 and January 1975 when Gainsford was manager
of the Salvation Army's Bramwell Booth Children's Home in Temuka. Mrs Cullen was a St Johns cadet
leader in the 1970s, responsible for a group of girls aged between eight and
11. Several of the girls lived at the home. She told the court of driving the
girls back to the home after they had spent a day at her parents' Arowhenua
property in December 1974. One of the girls said she wanted
to live with her and did not want to go back to Bramwell Booth. When asked why, an older girl
nudged the younger one, making it clear she was not to say anything. Mrs
Cullen saw the incident and asked more questions. "Once the seal was broken she
started telling me some things and the others chimed in." They told her how the captain had
got into bed with them and was touching them. There were also references to
the way Gainsford indecently touched the girls when he gave them piggybacks. "What they were talking about
little children shouldn't have known," she said of their descriptions of
Gainsford being sexually aroused. The girls made it clear they did
not want her to tell anyone as it was a secret. As Mrs Cullen drove up the drive
to the home, she saw Gainsford giving a little girl a piggyback. She
described the way he was carrying her as "not normal" as his hands
were behind him, under the child's bottom. "I could see her knickers and
his hand was rubbing down the crotch line of her knickers. "I was shocked at what I was
seeing," Mrs Cullen said, telling the court she was only a couple of
metres away from Gainsford and could clearly see his hands moving. It was a secret she could not
keep. As soon as she got home the 18-year-old rang her own St John leader,
telling her what she had seen and the comments the girls had made. Mrs Cullen understood the matter
was taken up with a local doctor. Gainsford left soon afterwards. When the girls returned to cadets
after the Christmas break they told her there was a new captain at the home
and they were pleased about that. The trial before Justice Fogarty
and a jury of three men and nine women continues today. |
