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The Press
December 24, 2003
Nuns give gifts to sex abuse claimants
Catholic nuns have donated cars,
overseas trips, home appliances and other gifts to victims who claim they were
abused as children in two Christchurch orphanages.
The gifts are part of an undisclosed settlement reached by the Sisters of
Nazareth with 17 complainants who allege physical and sexual abuse while in the
nuns' care at Nazareth House and
The complaints span from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Fourteen women and three men confronted the sisters, who were visiting from
Lawyers continued to negotiate compensation until a settlement was reached.
Claimants have received apologies for their "unhappy experiences"
under the sisters' care, as well as gifts. The nuns, whose charity work in
Unlike the St John of God Order which has been offering big cash payouts for
historic abuse complaints, the nuns' allocations were made on a needs basis.
Some claimants had their mortgages and other debts repaid. One woman asked for
a new kitchen. A fund was set up to cover future medical expenses as the
claimants age.
A joint statement issued yesterday by the nuns' lawyers, Saunders Robinson, and
solicitors for the claimants, said the mediation was "beneficial for all
concerned".
One 64-year-old claimant, who wants to be known only as Helen, said while the
gifts would make life easier, they would not erase harrowing memories of her
three years at Nazareth House.
Helen got a two-year supply of petrol vouchers, a trip to the
Helen was put into the sisters' care in 1946 because her mother could not cope
with six children.
"We were put into the care of angels, but they turned out to be
monsters," she said. "They called me the devil's child. We were
punished with the cane and strap."
She remembers being burnt by a nun with a hot stick from the copper used to
boil up linen in the laundry where children were put to work.
Another woman, transferred from
Lawyer Patrick McPherson, of Grant Cameron Associates, said one of his two male
clients who received compensation alleged sexual abuse by a nun.
The sisters made payments and apologies to claimants, but did not admit any
wrongdoing.
The order came to