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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A woman suing Catholic
authorities for $550,000, alleging a deprived and abusive upbringing, was
also a debutante who wore stolen knickers, a court has been told. "Fancy being
presented as a debutante when no one wants you," she laughed in the High
Court at Wellington yesterday. And then she began crying. "And I am
doing it so my brothers and sisters could be together." Catholic Social
Services paid for the dress and ticket and she and her foster family shared
the cost of a pre-ball party. She and her six siblings were reunited for the
occasion, she said. Four Catholic organisations
are denying her claims of physical, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse in the
late 1960s and 1970s. The children were
placed in care after their parents separated. Nuns mistreated and assaulted
her and several men, including a priest, sexually abused her, she said. The third day of the
hearing yesterday was often stopped when the woman began screaming or crying.
At one point she said
she wanted to talk to "her little girl", an apparent reference to
herself. "I have got to
tell my little girl that she was not an experiment, because she wants to
scream and she has got to shut up." The 45-year-old, whose
name is suppressed, clutched a small soft toy as she was cross-examined. Lawyer Greg Thomas,
acting for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington and Catholic Social
Services, questioned whether all her requests to CSS had been refused as she
claimed. She was denied
everything but the bare basics, she said. "That was why I went and
nicked stuff . . . I never got caught you know." Later she said she got
knickers, bras and make-up. "I got the lot, no one knew." She agreed CSS had paid
for driving lessons, more than the usual number. She said she wanted to be
normal, but she was a bit slow and needed extra lessons. Other girls had clothes
and make-up. "I wanted the things they had," she told Justice
Frater. One foster family had
instilled in her a love of classical music. "I dance around and do my
dance of the big fat elephant and I do my ballet, and my kids go, aw mum . .
. it soothes me . . . it is bloody fantastic. I love it, love it. "Have you heard
The Waltz of the Flowers?" she asked Justice Frater. "It's
fantastic, it is just unreal." She denied asking those
foster parents to say she had been disturbed when she went to live with them.
She said documents from
the time had said she was disturbed, and she may have talked to them about it
when she visited from Australia in 2000. She continues giving
evidence today |
