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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The man who blew the
whistle on abuse at the army's former cadet school says the report by retired
High Court judge David Morris was damning but didn't go far enough. The report found
bullying took place at the Regular Force Cadet School but said there was
nothing to support claims of a culture of abuse. Speaking from his home
in Australia, former sergeant Ian Fraser said: "What planet are these
people on if they don't believe the judge's findings of a pervasive pattern
of violence existing means a culture of abuse?" Mr Fraser said the army
had failed in an effort to put a positive spin on the report. More than 80 former
cadets were interviewed by Justice Morris, but Mr Fraser said he had been in
contact with more than 300. "Why, time after
time, when cadets were asked if they reported abuse did they say `no'? "The reason they
said `no' was because they were scared," he said. Mr Fraser sparked the
probe last year when he posted on the internet an article outlining physical
and sexual abuse of cadets between the 1960s and 1980s. The article led to more
than 300 other cadets coming forward and was the catalyst for an
investigation into the abuse and into the death of cadet Grant Bain. The 17-year-old, from
Te Awamutu, died in the cadet barracks after being shot by fellow cadet
Andrew Read in 1981. But former army
recruiter Mike Subritzky, of Te Awamutu, thought the report's findings were
fair. "There was no
army-wide culture of bullying. Incidents happened some years and in others it
didn't depending on the calibre of senior cadets at the time," he said. Retired army officer
Wayne Anker, who commanded the cadet school in 1982, said he had prepared
himself for the worst when the report was published. But he said the report
was fair. "Really the
findings were pretty good. There were obvious problems with the handling of
the Bain case but Justice Morris has done a pretty thorough job," he
said. |
