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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The first adult on the
scene of a controversial fatal shooting at Waiouru Army Camp says he was
never interviewed by police or Army investigators, fuelling claims of abuse
cover-ups at the cadet school. "They say there
was an inquiry at the time but there can't have been," said Andy Kyle, a
Dunedin sickness beneficiary. In February 1981, Grant
Bain, 17, was killed by Corporal Andrew Read, who was convicted of careless
use of a firearm, apparently believing his gun chamber was empty when he
pulled the trigger. Read was sentenced to
200 hours of community service and fined $200. Read himself died in
1998 in a forestry accident on the West Coast, aged 35. The case hit the
headlines last week after a claim by another former cadet, Ian Fraser,
alleged there was widespread "physical, psychological and sexual
abuse" of cadets from the 1960s until the school closed in 1991. It had
opened in 1948. At the time of the
shooting, Mr Kyle was a sergeant, training at the Waiouru fire station. "These kids came
running into the station saying there had been an accident - that someone had
been shot," he said. "I ran straight to
the barracks." Mr Kyle said he was
greeted by chaos. "You can imagine
what it would be like when one of these kids had just been shot." He administered first
aid to Mr Bain and looked after him until paramedics arrived. "No one ever
bothered to try to talk to me about what I saw, or anything," he said. "I was the first
person on the scene. I was in there with that boy and the other cadets for a
long time but no one has ever spoken to me. "How can they say
an inquiry has been held and they've even had a court case, when they haven't
spoken to me?" |
