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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A former army cadet who
was being given medical attention at the time one of his fellow cadets was
shot dead in 1981 says that repeated abuse "completely skewed" his
view of military life. More than 20 years
after enduring months of alleged physical and psychological abuse at Waiouru
Cadet School, David Cruickshank said the cadet corporal who pulled the
trigger that day was as much a victim of the brutal environment as the cadet
he shot. An army court of
inquiry report, only now made public, has confirmed allegations made this
week that cadets were beaten and abused. Grant Bain, 17, was shot by a cadet
corporal after an altercation in their barracks. When Mr Bain was shot
there was no adult duty supervisor present. The supervisor was attending to
Mr Cruickshank, then aged 16, who was in the camp hospital bleeding and badly
bruised after being kicked by fellow cadets for making a mistake on the
parade ground. "They lined up 30
or 40 guys on either side of me and I had to walk down the middle and each
one of them was told to kick me up the backside with their steel-capped boots
as hard as they could." Mr Cruickshank was
taken to the camp hospital with blood coming from his backside. Midway
through the treatment, his supervisor left suddenly for the barracks. "He was of course
dealing with what happened to my mate Bain. He was in the same barracks room
as me." The shooting, by
17-year-old cadet corporal Andrew William Read, who had ordered the earlier
punishment, should never have happened as live rounds were forbidden in the
barracks, Mr Cruickshank said. Other punishments he remembers include: * Being made to stand
on one foot on the parade ground, holding his rifle at arms length while an
officer cadet picked his nose with a knife. * Having floor polish
rubbed in his hair. After it solidified the only way to remove it was to have
all his hair cut off. * Being coerced into
"pimping" on fellow cadets and in retribution being ambushed at
night, having a blanket thrown over him and being beaten. The climate of violence
went unremarked by most cadets, who believed it to be part of the training. "Because we were
so young we were given a view this must be what the army is like because we
had nothing else to compare it to," Mr Cruickshank said. After the fatal
shooting, Read "took off into the hills for a day or so" before Mr
Bain's funeral was held. Read was charged by police with careless use of a
firearm causing death. He pleaded guilty and was fined $200 and ordered to do
200 hours' community work. Cadets were told the
shooting was an accident and everybody was interviewed, Mr Cruickshank said.
They were asked whether they wanted to stay. Mr Cruickshank decided to leave.
"I was in shock –
I didn't want to be in the army . . . and when I got out my parents told me
later I was a real mess." He understood the need
for discipline but it was taken to extremes, he said. "We were guys who
had just come out of school." He went into the army
hoping to get training and a career but it came to nothing, he said. What
happened had affected his life for years. "I had nightmares
and had a drinking problem for many years. It ended up impacting on jobs,
relationships, the whole lot. It was just terrible." |
