|
|
Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
|
|
|
|
A former army sergeant
who said he was subjected to 12 months of physical and psychological abuse at
Waiouru cadet school said senior officers overlooked the violence in the
belief that it toughened up the new recruits. The Christchurch man,
43, who asked not to be named, said bullying at the central North Island
training camp was "institutionalised". Teenagers were too afraid to
speak out because of a code of silence rigidly enforced by senior cadets, he
said. The father of two, who
joined up in 1978 aged 16, said on one occasion his bed was urinated on by
drunken older cadets who were left to supervise overnight. "It was
feral," he said. "There was no control from the regular staff. We
were quite lucky -- our sergeant came in every night -- but when he went
home, the seniors were left in charge, and they were brutal. "If you showed any
form of weakness they turned on you." The former Hudson Cadet
Class pupil went on to serve for 20 years in the Royal New Zealand Signal
Corps, reaching the rank of sergeant when he retired in 1998. He decided to speak out
to encourage other former cadets to come forward. "My dad came from
England and right at the start one of the seniors came up to me and said,
`You're a Pom; I don't like Poms'. And from that moment, if ever there was
any dirty work to do, I was one of the ones singled out. "On Sunday
evenings we had what was called gunge parade. "We spent the
whole day polishing our boots and sorting out our uniform. If they found a
hair on your comb you were in for it. "When it came to
my inspection, one of the seniors asked me to open my security box, and I had
some rags in there that I used for my boots. "He took a
disliking to that and made me march past 110 other cadets with a margarine
tub on my head. "At the end I was
kicked by every senior. It hurt, but it was more the indignity that I
remember. "There is no way I
would let my kids go through that." As new recruits, the
first-years were known as "snots". The former cadet said most of
the punishments were doled out by the seniors. "The most
terrifying time was at night. "The seniors
weren't supposed to drink alcohol, but they always managed to get it and they
would get drunk and come into your room in the middle of the night. "When the lights
came on you were wide awake because you didn't know what they were going to
do to you. "They would either
beat you up or do what they called a Hawaiian splash, where they would stand
on the end of your bed and jump on you. "Even now I can't
sleep soundly with the light on. I still don't feel safe until the lights go
out." He continued:
"Another time I went to get into bed one night and it was wet. "One of the other
cadets said someone had spilt the iron on it, so I ironed the sheets to dry
them and got into bed. "It wasn't until a
long time afterwards that I found out one of the seniors had come in drunk
and urinated on my bed." He said that although
cadets were encouraged to speak out against bullies the harsh treatment often
went ignored. "I think they (the
adult leaders) turned the other way. "They thought that
they were doing the right thing, that they were toughening us up as new boys.
"We were told that
if we had any personnel problems we could speak to the padre, but no-one ever
did. "There was a code
of silence that was drummed into you from day one. The thing that saved me
was that I was a runner, and the physical instructor was pretty hard and
no-one touched his runners." He said he was not
surprised that claims of abuse had come to light. "It was just a
matter of time that someone would say something. I'm like a lot of people.
I'm not after compensation, I just feel this should be said. I think people
have to know what it was like." -------------------- CAPTION: Camp of
cruelty: the former Waiouru cadet, who has asked not to be identified, says
older cadets urinated on his bed. |
