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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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An independent inquiry
into allegations of abuse at the Waiouru Army Cadet school could be signed
off by cabinet as early as Monday. Hundreds of former
cadets have come forward with tales of brutality since one of them broke
ranks last weekend - including one man who says he was pack raped half a
dozen times. "There was about
five of them in the room. Five of what I call senior cadets, and I bent over
the bed and one by one they did what they wanted. The pain was unbelievable,"
says "Jim" who does not want to be identified. That, says Jim, was the
first of six pack rapes he endured over the course of 14 months. "On one occasion
when it got a bit just a bit much, I spoke to one of the padres - and didn't
tell him everything but I told him some of it what happened, and that night I
was hauled from the barracks and thrown in the river naked. When I finally
got out, I was so bloody cold I could barely stand, and then I got the crap
beaten out of me," says Jim. Jim says when he graduated
he and another cadet tried to lay a formal complaint with an officer. "And his words
were 'you can complain, I'll take your complaint, but you won't live to
witness a court martial'. In other words shut up." Jim kept quiet for four
decades but says he is now prepared to testify to an independent inquiry -
even a court of law - against his alleged attackers. "If they end up
behind bars, that's justice taking its course," says Jim. But a lawyer who
specialises in historic sex abuse cases says while they're not unusual,
they're hard to both prosecute and defend. "The delay means
all sorts of problems obviously in terms of memory, recollections, witnesses
being alive, witnesses wanting to testify," says QC John Haigh. And he says an
independent inquiry could also prejudice any criminal prosecution. |
