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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The mother of a woman
accusing Catholic Social Services of negligence rejected her own children and
refused to have them reunited, a judge has been told. The mother took little
interest in her seven children and placed her three daughters with the
Sisters of Mercy at St Joseph's Orphanage, Upper Hutt, lawyer Greg Thomas
said in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. One of the daughters,
now 45, is claiming $550,000. She is alleging she was
emotionally, physically, verbally and sexually abused during the years she
was in Catholic care between 1968 and 1977. Her name is suppressed.
Acting for Wellington's
Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Catholic Social Services, its main social
service agency, Mr Thomas said the court should be sceptical about the
woman's credibility. Her claim was not
accepted on factual and legal grounds, he said. Evidence would be given
that the plaintiff's mother placed her daughters at the orphanage after her
marriage ended. Though they were still
legally in her custody, she gave their care and control over to the Sisters
of Mercy. She took little
interest in them and when CSS tried to reunite the children the mother
refused, Mr Thomas said. The only formal role
CSS played was to check the private homes that hosted the children on
holidays. The Sisters of Mercy
and the orphanage trust board will present their defence to the woman's
claims later in the case, which is expected to end next week. Mr Thomas said the
court should guard against judging past behaviour by present standards. A former CSS director,
whose name was suppressed, said few of the children in Catholic orphanages
were orphans. Most were from broken
homes and the parents rarely gave financial support. The nuns had day-to-day
care of the children and guarded their independence jealously, the witness
said. Earlier, psychiatrist
John Crawshaw had told the court that the plaintiff was very disturbed and
needed intensive help. He gave possible causes
of her mental state but stopped short of saying definitively what had caused
it or whether her allegations about the way she was treated were true. The plaintiff's final
witnesses had been at the orphanage or St Joseph's School in Upper Hutt. One said she remembered
good things about the orphanage but said she saw that some of the girls were
treated differently. She remembered the
plaintiff and her sister being hit from behind with a strap when they were
singing. The plaintiff was
belittled all the time and told off for feeling sorry for herself, she said. Another woman, who had
attended St Joseph's School from 1958 to 1960, said it was her introduction
to child violence. "I am 57 years of
age and my childhood ended the day I entered that classroom. "I have waited 47
years to tell this story." |
