NZ child abuse inquiry report makes grim reading
New Zealand’s Public Service Minister Chris Hipkins says the report on abuse in state and faith-based care institutions is a “difficult read.”
Up to a quarter of a million children, young people and vulnerable adults were physically and sexually abused in New Zealand’s faith-based and state-care institutions from the 1960s to early 2000s, a public inquiry revealed on Wednesday.
An interim report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry found children, some from as young as 9 months old, suffered years of abuse, which included rape and electric shock treatment, by staff at psychiatric and state-care facilities, clergy and foster guardians.
The report estimated that up to 256,000 people were abused, accounting for almost 40 percent of the 655,000 people in care during the period, with most abuse occurring in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The hurt and anguish that has been caused in New Zealand’s history is inexcusable,” said Minister for the Public Service Chris Hipkins, who described the report as a “difficult read.”
“All children in the care of the state should be safe from harm, but as the testimony sets out all too often the opposite was true.”
The report said most abuse survivors were aged between 5 and 17.
The abuse included physical assault and sexual abuse, with staff in some psychiatric institutions forcing male patients to rape female patients. It also included the improper use of medical procedures, including electric shocks on genitals and vaginal examinations, and verbal abuse and racial slurs.
“Sometimes I’d have shock treatment twice a day,” said Anne, who at 17 was put in a psychiatric institution in 1979.
“The records (said) I went blind, then they gave me shock treatment again that night.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Royal Commission in 2018 saying the country needed to confront “a dark chapter” in its history.
