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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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Wellington: A woman who
claims she was brutalised and sexually abused while in the care of nuns says
she was raped during one holiday away from school by a man who is now dead. In the High Court at
Wellington yesterday, the woman, whose name is suppressed, was asked why
Catholic Social Services files did not record where she was placed during
school holidays. The woman screamed at
defence lawyer Greg Thomas to ask Catholic Social Services. Justice Frater left the
court and when the hearing resumed, the woman apologised. "I am sorry for
being a naughty girl. I am trying to be a good girl." The woman (45), now
living in Australia, said she was raped during one holiday away from school
by a man who was now dead. "[He’s] dead,
leave him alone. He did what he did to me. He is dead, leave him alone, leave
me alone." She began shouting
again when asked what year she said her grandfather raped her during one of
her Sunday visits to his flat. "You know I have
problems with that. Stop it," she yelled. The woman is suing the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington, Catholic Social Services, the
Sisters of Mercy (Wellington) Trust Board and St Josephs Orphanage Trust
Board for $550,000. She was at St Josephs,
Upper Hutt, from 1968 to 1973, spent some months with a foster family and
then went to St Marys as a boarder. The defendants deny her
allegations and say there are legal reasons why her claim cannot succeed. The woman and her six
siblings were put into care after their parents separated. She became particularly
upset when asked how she felt about her mother. Until she had spoken to
a psychiatrist, she said, she blamed her mother for everything that happened.
"She is my mum, I
hate her . . . guts for putting me in that hellhole, but she is not to blame
for what happened in there.” The woman said she had
always expected to be reunited with her family. "I didn’t know I
was going to be at that hellhole for that many years." She became angry again
when Mr Thomas asked for details about an incident in which she said a priest
made her give him oral sex. "I had just been
sexually assaulted by a . . . priest, a man who was supposed to be looking
after me . . . you dickhead." She said she dry
retched and vomited in the garden after the incident. The nuns had reprimanded
her for being upset. She agreed she may have
had an adolescent crush on one of the men whose family she stayed with when
she was 12 or 13. She had masturbated him
several times, and he had never asked her to stop, she said. She denied
making up the masturbation story. The case is continuing.
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