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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The sister of a woman
suing Catholic authorities for alleged abuse at the hands of nuns and priests
has told a court of being force-fed tripe and boiled cabbage. Her sister is claiming $550,000
in a civil suit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington,
Catholic Social Services, the Sisters of Mercy (Wellington) Trust Board and
St Joseph's Orphanage Trust Board. She told Justice Frater
in the High Court at Wellington yesterday that she and her two older sisters
lived at St Joseph's Orphanage in Upper Hutt in the 60s and 70s after their
parents' marriage broke up. She was never able to
spend time with her sisters while there and felt lonely, scared and unwanted.
No one explained to her what had happened to her family and why she was
there. She recounted being hit
with leather straps by nuns and being told she was "nobody's
child", or that no one loved her. The nuns kept their
straps in their habits or a pocket and hardly a day went by when she was not
belted, she said. One of the straps had a sharp end that would cut her hand
or legs. Once a week, she said,
she was force-fed. She remembered being fed tripe and boiled cabbage and
warning that she would vomit if they made her eat the sago pudding. When she was six her
mouth was washed out with soap for telling a dirty rhyme, she said. The nuns and priests
also carried out exorcisms on her but when questioned by the lawyer for the
Sisters of Mercy, Chris Finlayson, about what she remembered she said she was
prayed over, with them trying to get the devil out of her. Several times she
shouted at the lawyers when they questioned her memory of the years she spent
there. "I'd love to show
you what it felt like to be hit and when it (the strap) missed . . . do you
want to get cut too, mate?" she asked Mr Finlayson. School holidays were
sometimes spent with a foster family and they would be treated like slaves. She told the judge her
sister was blamed for a fire in one of the dormitories, but her sister had
nothing to do with it. She had been the lookout while other girls lit the
fire. She told the lawyer for
Catholic Social Services, Greg Thomas, that she did not accept she was wrong
about the abuse but might not remember all the dates. The case is expected to
take at least another week |
