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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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An army court of
inquiry into the shooting of 17-year-old army cadet Grant Bain details eye
witness accounts to the young soldiers' shooting and tells of a pervasive
pattern of violence at the Waiouru school. Cadets told
investigators that Andrew William Read, 17, entered the Galata barracks while
cadets were cleaning their M16 rifles on February 13, 1981. Cadets said Read took a
live round from a glass mug in his wardrobe and loaded it into his rifle
before pointing it at cadets in the room. The cadets spoken to
said Read then trained the rifle on Bain who told him to "f***
off". Witnesses said a few
seconds later the gun fired and Grant Bain fell to the floor and died. The army court of
inquiry was carried out after Read had already been charged by police with
careless use of a firearm causing death and been sentenced to 200 hours
community service and a $200 fine. The inquiry found Read
appeared to be in the habit of taking rounds of ammunition and secreting them
away while he was an ammunition NCO at the school. It says four hours
before Read shot Grant Bain he had taken the cap off another round and fired
his rifle into the arm of another cadet. The report details a
lack of staff which meant supervision of the barracks was "intermittent
and inadequate' with NCO's "who are really only boys" left in
charge of overseeing the barracks. Cadets spoken to said
there was a "pervasive pattern of violence" inflicted on junior
cadets by cadet NCO's. Cadets were required to
bend over and "adopt the position" receiving kicks for
indiscretions. On one occasion the
report says a cadet was kicked by nearly his whole platoon. "The court
believes that minor violence of various forms is widespread in the
school," the report says, adding the abuse was accepted albeit
reluctantly by most cadets. As a result of the
inquiry Read was called to answer military charges of theft of ammunition,
modifying ammunition, assault or striking a soldier and firing a rifle at a
soldier. The shooting incident
is the worst of a spate of allegations of violent abuse at the school during
the 1980s. Defence Minister Mark
Burton has ordered an inquiry, and his office has received 60 calls since Ian
Fraser, a former cadet, went public last weekend. A report by Mr Fraser
said there was widespread "physical, psychological and sexual
abuse" of cadets at the Waiouru Cadet School during the 1960s to early
1990s. Mr Fraser said
yesterday he had received more than 100 emails from other cadets who had
suffered at the school. Mr Burton said the
office of the chief of defence was starting a preliminary investigation and a
neutral investigation might be required. "There is no doubt
that during a period of time in the history of this organisation there were
people who engaged in extreme acts of violence and abuse which were not
acceptable then and are not acceptable now," he said on National Radio. Prime Minister Helen
Clark promised the Government would not sweep the issue "under the
carpet". She described the abuse
allegations as "shocking" and said the Government was moving as
quickly as possible to investigate them. "There are in
effect allegations of at least manslaughter, allegations of rape, allegations
of serious assault," she told reporters. "I think we are at
the preliminary stage of trying to gauge what the dimensions of this are, but
the kind of allegations we've heard are quite shocking. "Certainly the
Government has no desire whatsoever to see allegations of brutality swept
under the carpet," she said. The New Zealand Herald
reported today that former All Black Stan "Tiny" Hill ran the
barracks during the years the alleged abuses took place. Mr Hill, now aged 77,
told the Herald the cadets were treated honestly in the proper military way. - additional reporting
by NZPA |
