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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A woman suing the
Catholic church over alleged physical and sexual abuse collapsed in the
witness box at the High Court in Wellington today, halting the hearing. Earlier the woman
hurled a folder of documents toward a lawyer and screamed, swore and cried
under questioning. The 45-year-old woman
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 over alleged abuse. The respondents' lawyer
had been questioning her about her alleged rape by a male member of a foster
family approved by the church, she had stayed with in the mid-1970s. The woman began
screaming when asked when and where she stayed with the family, She yelled: "Jesus
... I'm not an animal." Justice Marion Frater
adjourned the court for a few minutes after the woman jumped off her seat and
threw a folder. When court resumed, the
woman said: "I am sorry for being a naughty Girl ... I'm trying to be a
good girl." She went on to describe
how she was allegedly raped by the male after a Sunday group meeting at a
church. A short time later the
woman collapsed in the witness box prompting the judge to again adjourn the
hearing. Yesterday, the woman
broke down in court when asked to describe how she was allegedly made to
perform oral sex on a priest. She said she was about
eight years old when it happened at St Joseph's Orphanage in Upper Hutt,
where she lived between 1968 and 1973. The woman, whose name
is suppressed, claims she was beaten unconscious by nuns, verbally and
mentally abused, told she would go straight to Hell, and made to feel
worthless at the orphanage. One nun hit her head,
causing an ear injury that was not corrected surgically until she left
school, and more sexual abuse took place at private homes she was sent to for
holidays, she alleges. A psychiatrist had
diagnosed the woman as having a cluster of syndromes and disorders, the
woman's counsel Helen Cull told the court. Few such cases against
religious groups reached the court, most had been settled out of court, Ms
Cull said. The respondents 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 case is set down
for three weeks before Justice Marion Frater, who has ordered the suppression
of most witnesses' names until judgement |
