The Press
May 18 2004
Woodcock case
Terry Carter was
just 15 when Alan Woodcock became his teacher at St Patrick's College in
Silverstream.
"He was one of the most friendly people you could
meet," Carter said. "He was charming, brilliant -- completely
opposite to the other priests."
Carter liked and trusted Woodcock, who taught him music and Christian doctrine.
Woodcock made friends with the boys, offered them cigarettes and joked with
them. "He acted like he was just one of the boys," Carter said.
But the trust soon turned to betrayal. After Carter got into trouble, the
college's rector, Father Vincent Curtain, through the Social Welfare
Department, appointed Woodcock to give Carter counselling -- provided in Woodcock's
bedroom.
"The first session I was really nervous. He asked me about how I got on
with my parents and he knew my grandfather, who I was really close to, had just
died ... he was being quite friendly, but I didn't realise he was casing me
out."
At the second session the abuse began. "Although it was physically
happening, it was just unfathomable. I had always been taught that
homosexuality was a sin and here was a priest doing that to me. I thought I
would be going to hell because of it."
The abuse continued at almost every counselling session and included acts of
masturbation and oral sex. Then a complaint about Woodcock was made by other
boys in August that year.
Instead of telling police about the complaints, Father Curtain and then church
provincial Fred Bliss allowed Woodcock to remain at the school.
At the end of 1982 the church moved Woodcock to Highden,
a house for young priests near Palmerston North.
However, the abuse continued for several years with Woodcock calling on Carter
when he was in town. The last time he heard from Woodcock was in 1985 when the
priest was at Futuna retreat in Karori.
Woodcock called, telling him to meet him in the river bank carpark
in
After the incident Carter moved away from his parents' house and the contact
with Woodcock ended, but the legacy remained.
After the abuse began Carter turned to drugs. There were many overdoses, which
he says might or might not have been suicide attempts. "I didn't care
whether I woke up or not," he said. Eventually he had a breakdown.
In 1994 he complained to the church about Woodcock, saying he wanted to make
sure the priest no longer had access to children. Carter also wanted an
apology. However, he describes the church's attitude as less than helpful.
"Basically it was total denial."
In 1996 he took a civil case against Woodcock and the school. After five years,
Carter said, he was so worn down that he settled out of court, receiving a sum
of $45,000 and signing a confidentiality clause and an agreement to take no
further action.
However, the case left Carter angry and determined to give up his right to
anonymity and speak out publicly to make sure it did not happen to another
child again.