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NZ Herald
May 13, 2004
Sex abuse at health camp claims MP
NZPA
Young girls were
sexually abused at Glenelg Health Camp in Christchurch by a woman health officer
who accused their fathers of sexual abuse, it was alleged in Parliament
yesterday.
Act MP Deborah Coddington said families were destroyed by those accusations
while successive Governments ignored a "dreadful scandal".
She said that in 1987 three girls went to the health camp and were put in the
care of the state.
"A state employee sexually abused these little girls and no Government
has ever done anything except sweep this scandal under the carpet," she
said.
Speaking under parliamentary privilege, Ms Coddington named the officer of
health.
"Dr ... , without the parents' permission and with no other adult
present, repeatedly examined these little girls in a way that can only be
described as sexual abuse," she said.
"She inserted swabs into their vaginas. She measured their vaginas with
tape measures, not once, not twice, but over and over again.
"She kept saying to these little girls 'this is what your fathers do to
you, isn't it'?"
Ms Coddington said the doctor convinced the Department of Social Welfare that
the girls were being sexually abused by their fathers, and they were not
allowed home to their families until their mothers agreed to separate from
their husbands.
"The police investigated these men and found not a shred of evidence
that these men had sexually abused their daughters," she said.
"These families have been destroyed."
Ms Coddington appealed for a select committee inquiry into what went on at
the Glenelg Health Camp in the years 1987-1988.
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