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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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A former army sergeant
major who spent a total of five years at the Regular Force Cadet School has
dismissed a claim by a former cadet that he was repeatedly raped at the
school 40 years ago. "I just don't believe
the claim by a former cadet that he was sodomised by a group of cadets is
credible," said retired sergeant major Bob Davies of Lower Hutt, who was
a cadet at Waiouru in 1964-65 and later served as a junior non-commissioned
officer with the school from 1969-72. In an e-mail forwarded
to Defence Minister Mark Burton last week the former cadet, who asked not to
be named, said: "I was raped by five NCOs, one of them very senior --
this occurred six times in 14 months." He also reported: * Being stripped naked
and having his head forced back at the point of a bayonet while his genitals
were "interfered with". * Being made to stand
naked in the snow with a loaded rifle pointed at him for an hour while
outside the female barracks. * Being made to stand
naked with a loaded rifle in his mouth while again having his genitals
interfered with. * Being stripped naked
by nine cadets and held down on a concrete floor before being scrubbed with a
yard broom. * Having a broom handle
used on his rear end so often he lost count. The cadet, who was at
the school for 15 months from the start of 1962 said he had also seen other
cadets being raped and "broom-handled". He said he was warned
that if he complained "we would not live to witness at any court
martial". The Police Complaints
Authority is to investigate the police investigation of the 1981 fatal
shooting of 17-year-old cadet Grant Bain at the cadet school. The man who
shot Mr Bain, Corporal Andrew Read, was convicted of careless use of a
firearm. He has since died. Mr Davies said he was aware that cadets were
abused -- "hazing" was an intrinsic part of the cadet school and
other similar institutions of the day -- in New Zealand and overseas. "But sodomisation
of a cadet by a group of NCOs is just not credible. This is because of the
cadets' abhorrence of things homosexual and anybody considered to have such
predilections would not have been tolerated. If it is established that six
cadets sodomised another I will not only eat my beret and lemon squeezer, but
my tin hat as well." Mr Davies said he was
most concerned that unfounded allegations against some people would
nevertheless damage reputations of some fine people. "However, this is
not to say that there were not isolated incidents involving staff members.
But in every case, once discovered, the full force of military law was
imposed," Mr Davies said. |
