Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A woman is claiming
more than half a million dollars from the Catholic church for physical,
sexual, verbal and emotional abuse she says she suffered while in the care of
an Upper Hutt orphanage. The woman, whose name
is suppressed by a court order, says she was repeatedly abused at St Joseph's
orphanage in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The nuns' names are also
suppressed. Now in her forties, she
is seeking $350,000 damages, $100,000 aggravated damages and $100,000
exemplary damages and court costs. The three-week hearing begins in the High
Court at Wellington tomorrow. The damages sought are
believed to be the highest claimed against the Catholic Church in an abuse
case in New Zealand. The defendants - the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington, Catholic Social Services, the
Sisters of Mercy (Wellington) Trust Board and St Joseph's Orphanage Trust
Board - deny the allegations. The Sisters of Mercy
say the claim is barred under the Limitation Act 1950, and that they are not
liable for aggravated or exemplary damages. The Archdiocese and
Catholic Social Services say the claim for mental injury is invalid because
it is covered by the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act
2001. The Catholic Church
will be represented by Wellington barrister Chris Finlayson, a high-ranking
National list candidate and a Catholic. Court documents,
released after the Sunday Star-Times applied to presiding judge Justice
Marion Frater, say the woman was sent to live in the orphanage in 1968 after
her parents separated, and stayed there until 1973. She alleges that during
that time and at St Mary's College from 1974 to 1977, she "suffered
severe abuse and deprivation of a normal upbringing". Among her allegations
are that she was constantly verbally abused, harassed, harangued, shouted and
screamed at by all the nuns. She says she was several times hit over the head
so severely that she lost consciousness. The woman claims she
was strapped with a leather strap and ruler, hit with a metre-long wooden
stick, and hit over the head by an open hand almost daily. And she says that
during school holidays she was placed in holiday homes and her grandfather's
home, where she was sexually abused. At the orphanage, she
says, she was accused of being a thief and of setting fire to a dormitory. The woman claims
physical damage, including perforation of an eardrum that required surgery
and further ear damage because she was denied treatment for ear infections. She also says she
endured bruising and pain from beatings, and physical injury and pain from
the sexual abuse. She also claims she has
severe emotional and mental damage, including depression, anxiety and panic
attacks, agoraphobia, suicidal feelings, obsessive thoughts and intrusive
memories of past abuse, alcohol and drug abuse and other problems requiring
her to take medication and leaving her unable to work or maintain
relationships. The church has paid
compensation to abuse victims, but the amounts have been much less than that
sought in this case. In the past five years,
the Catholic Church has paid amounts ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 in about
half a dozen other cases of sexual abuse. Christchurch's St John
of God Order paid $70,000 to $170,000 to 12 men abused as boys at former
residential school Marylands. Further settlements are
pending, awaiting criminal prosecutions still to come before the courts. In the United States
the Catholic Church has been forced to pay out in multi-million dollar
lawsuits by sexual abuse victims - leading churches to file for bankruptcy in
some cities. Catholic Communications
spokeswoman Lindsay Freer said it would not be appropriate for the church to
comment on the case about to be heard. |