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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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Wellington: A Catholic
orphanage in Upper Hutt in the 1960s would have done the Gestapo proud, a
High Court judge has been told. In Wellington
yesterday, former resident Shirley Ford told the court the orphanage was a
loveless wasteland. Leaving was like being
released from prison, she said. Ms Ford was giving
evidence after contacting lawyers acting for a woman who lived at the
orphanage after her, and who is now suing St Joseph’s Orphanage Trust Board
and the Sisters of Mercy (Wellington) Trust Board, along with Wellington’s
Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Catholic Social Services. The plaintiff, whose
name is suppressed, is claiming $550,000. She says she was emotionally,
verbally, physically, and sexually abused while in their care. The Catholic groups are
defending the claim both as to what happened and on legal grounds. Ms Ford said she was at
the orphanage from early 1963 to mid-1966, when she was aged 9 to 12.
Eventually, she found the courage to rebel and she was asked to leave for
being disruptive and a bad influence on the other girls. Some nuns had a kind
word for her, but the nun who had the most to do with the day-today running
of the orphanage was extremely cruel and vicious. That nun used a strap
with grim force, but the pain of the mental cruelty was worse, Ms Ford said. At best, the treatment
the nuns handed out was terribly misguided in that it was believed it was for
the girls’ own good. At worst, the regime would have done the Gestapo proud,
she said. Another woman, whose
name was suppressed, said she had tried to block out memories of the time in
the early 1960s she spent at the orphanage. The nuns punished her for crying,
and she was never allowed to grieve for her mother, who had committed
suicide. The verbal abuse was
horrible and the nuns physically lashed out, she said. She remembered three
nuns who were kind. Psychiatrists for both
sides have interviewed the woman who has brought the claim. They agreed she was
very disturbed, and diagnosed depression, generalised anxiety disorder with
panic attacks, alcohol abuse, a mixed personality disorder, and symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder. Events before her
parents’ marriage break-up, and separation from her mother, would have
predisposed her to later impaired functioning, they said. If the events she
alleges occurred at St Joseph’s Orphanage did occur, that would have had a
serious affect on her, and the alleged sexual abuse would be responsible for
a significant part of her adult impairment and disorder. The psychiatrists
disagreed on how much they could rely on her recall of events. The case continues
today. |
