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Allegations
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A woman broke down in
court when asked to describe how she was made to perform oral sex on a
priest. The woman, 45, began
weeping uncontrollably and her lawyer, Helen Cull, QC, had to say the words
for her to confirm in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. The woman said she was
about eight years old when the incident happened at St Joseph's Orphanage in
Upper Hutt, where she was between 1968 and 1973. "I did not want to
believe someone who was like a father figure to me could do something like
that." The woman says she was
beaten unconscious, abused and made to feel worthless during her years at the
orphanage. During emotional
evidence, the woman, whose name is suppressed, says she was often called No
18, the number sewn on labels in her clothes. She said as well as being
mistreated at the orphanage, she was sexually abused when sent to private
homes for holidays. She became upset as she
told how no record could be found of many of the holiday placements. "There is 2-1/2 to
three years where I don't even exist and a lot happened to me then. "I'm a human
being, for God's sake." She became distressed
again when she said she was wrongly accused of setting fire to a dormitory. She is claiming
$550,000 in a civil suit against the Wellington Catholic Archdiocese,
Catholic Social Services, The Sisters of Mercy (Wellington) Trust Board, and
St Joseph's Orphanage Trust Board. Ms Cull said few such
cases reached the court, most had been settled out of court. The woman said she saw
her father attack her mother. After her parents separated she was sent to the
Salvation Army Whatman Home in Masterton, where she was happy. A year later she was
sent to St Joseph's and from there she was "dumped" at St Mary's
boarding school. At St Joseph's one nun
hit her head, causing an ear injury that was not corrected surgically till
the woman had left school. She said she believed
she was repeatedly knocked unconscious. She would "come to"
somewhere, groggy and disorientated, having no idea how she got there. She apologised if she
wrongly accused people of actions. Some memories were clear of events but not
who was involved. Ms Cull said a
psychiatrist had diagnosed the woman as having a cluster of syndromes and
disorders. The defendant groups
have denied the woman's claims in papers filed in court. They also say ACC
rules mean she cannot claim for injuries that ACC covers, and that she is, in
any event, too late to make the claims she does. The woman has been told
that other former St Joseph's girls would give evidence of being well
treated. The case is expected to
take more than two weeks. |
