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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A woman suing the
Catholic Church for alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse sobbed
loudly and became too distressed to speak as she gave evidence in the High
Court at Wellington yesterday. The woman, who has name
suppression, appeared distraught when she was called on to read evidence
detailing her years at St Joseph's Orphanage in Upper Hutt, and when asked to
name a man she alleges sexually abused her. She is claiming
$550,000 in damages, plus interest and costs, from the church and other
Catholic agencies. Justice Marion Frater
called several adjournments during the first day of the case, expected to
take three weeks, so the 45-year-old woman could compose herself. Suppression orders also
prohibit publication of the names of nuns and men accused of abusing her. Named as defendants are
the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington, Catholic Social Services (CSS), the
Sisters of Mercy (Wellington) Trust Board and St Joseph's Orphanage Trust Board.
All deny the allegations. The woman claims that
as a child she was often beaten at the orphanage, and was verbally and
emotionally abused almost daily by some nuns. She said she had been
sexually abused at the orphanage, and again at foster homes arranged by CSS.
"She was literally at the mercy of the nuns," said the woman's
lawyer, Helen Cull, QC. Ms Cull said the church
and Catholic Social Services held themselves to be caring, Christian
organisations, but they had been negligent in not providing that care. The woman said she was
one of seven children and remembered a happy home, but her father drank and
hit her mother. After being taken to a
Salvation Army home when the marriage ended, she and a sister were taken to
St Joseph's in 1968. She remained there until 1973. She said she remembered
the fear and horror of her time there, and the nuns' religious focus. "I
remember hating God." She had recently
remembered a man at the orphanage making her perform oral sex on him.
Afterwards she had vomited, and been very upset. The woman gave evidence
about Catholic foster care, saying one man had asked her to swim nude and
asked her to put her hands down the front of his trousers, and she had been
raped - including, when she was a teenager, by her drunken grandfather. She said she did not
tell anyone because "there was no one to tell. I felt at the time the
nuns hated me." She said the emotional
abuse continued at St Mary's College and she began abusing alcohol and, to a
lesser degree, drugs. The mother of two sons,
who now lives overseas, filed her lawsuit in 2001, after being given her file
from the orphanage in 1999. She said it triggered many devastating memories. |
