Abuse in state care: Jack Horton reveals details about his dark childhood

Sunday, 20 September 2020

Jack Horton is one of hundreds of survivors involved in the Abuse in Care Inquiry. He was first put in the system at age 3½, and committed his first crime at age 11.

Jack Horton spent most of his childhood in state care, a time of ongoing abuse that shaped his life forever. Sophie Cornish reports.

The first time Jack Horton saw the inside of a seclusion cell, he was 13 years old.

The room where he spent two to three weeks had only a concrete bed with a foam squab, a single plastic chair, blankets and a panic button. Carpet was halfway up the walls to “stop the kids hurting themselves”.

This wasn’t prison but a punishment for escaping. It was in the isolation cell out back of Stanmore Road Boys’ Home in Richmond, Christchurch, where he was being housed by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW).

* Alleged abuse victims demand apology from Anglican Church Trust

* Dame Susan Devoy calls for inquiry into abuse of Maori children

* Don't make us survivors of our own childhood, says former CYF kid

Jack Horton sitting on Santa's lap with his sister at age 3, before his mother abandoned the pair at a DSW office in Christchurch.

* Abuse in state care 'hurts forever'

The facility was one of at least 11 different living situations Horton was placed in throughout his childhood, since first being put into the state care system at age three.

This included sporadically being put back with his parents, who physically and verbally abused him.

But as Horton later learnt, after his first stint in prison at age 17, prison was better than the facilities he had been forced to endure in his childhood.

As a registered survivor of the inquiry, Horton, pictured here at age 11, has open claims with MSD and the Ministry of Education.

“I just accepted it [prison] as the grown-up version of the boys’ homes. To be honest, there wasn't much difference.”

At age 3½, Horton’s mother abandoned him and his sister at a Christchurch DSW office.

The pair, wearing name tags, were found by a staff member. They were accommodated at Kingsley Girls’ Home overnight, until efforts could be made to find their parents.

Horton said his mother’s loss of another child, who died at six months old, pushed her over the edge.

Fast-forward eight years when Horton committed his first crime; stealing a bicycle.

“That was simply so I could get further away… I started absconding, as they called it. In reality, I was escaping from these institutions. I would break out of them and escape on a regular basis. And that for me, inevitably led to living on the streets and doing whatever it took to survive at that time.”

Horton, centre, age 11, sits on the steps of Holdsworth Welfare Home in Whanganui, where he was subject to physical and sexual abuse.

Horton identifies as gay and often when he would escape a boys’ home as a teenager, he would engage in sexual activity with men, which was illegal at the time, in order to find a place to stay.

During his time in state care, he faced years of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, including gang rape, beatings by both his teachers, caregivers and other boys and being forced to fight and box other children.

Horton is one of close to 1300 survivors registered for The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, investigating the abuse and neglect that happened to children, young people and vulnerable adults in care from 1950 and 1999.

An additional 470 registrations from survivor advocates and family members of survivors are also involved.

On Monday, the second part of the inquiry, the State Redress public hearings, will take place.

The first hearing will focus on the experiences of survivors in seeking redress, such as compensation, counselling and apologies and will run until October 6.

The second hearing, which begins on October 19 and runs until November 3, will focus on the Crown’s response to the survivor evidence and experience, and examine what processes have been, and still are, available to people who have been abused in care.

“The ideal outcome would be an acknowledgement by the government of what happened. For me, financial reparation is second place, but I would like to see that happen… What would be better is if instead of the government forking out, the actual perpetrators at the time forking out of their own pockets. But that’s not going to happen, a lot of them are probably dead now anyway,” Horton says.

He has an open claim with the Ministry of Social Development, detailing abuses and neglect at Stanmore Road Boys’ Home in Christchurch, Holdsworth Welfare Home in Whanganui, and other care arrangements, as well as with the Ministry of Education for time spent at McKenzie School in Yaldhurst, Christchurch.

The inquiry process has been an emotional ordeal, and has taken Horton months to prepare for. But he says what actually happened needs to be known by the public at large.

Now at age 51, Horton still suffers flashback from his childhood.

“It is something that the public needs to know. I understand that the public may find it unpalatable. But I still think it needs to be out there.”

Of the close to 1300 survivors registered, 17 per cent are currently incarcerated.

A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said it is continuing to provide ongoing support for survivors in prison, while respecting their privacy.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in June 2019 between the Royal Commission and Corrections.

The MOU is aimed at helping prisoners have access to information about the inquiry, and access to Commissioners to share their experiences. This includes making information about the inquiry available on prison kiosks, and allowing prisoners to confidentially phone the inquiry’s 0800 number to register their interest. Staff also help people to register.

Commissioners have held private sessions at nine prisons around the country as well as focus groups with registered survivors.

Face-to-face counselling is available to prisoners before, during and after they met with a Commissioner.

Horton, who has been imprisoned about “half a dozen times,” since age 17, mostly for petty theft, says crime is a symptom of the “very distorted value system” created from a childhood in state care.

“I think what caused [that] was a total disrespect and contempt for authority, which was caused by the treatment of me as a child.

“When I was first admitted to a particular boys’ home in Christchurch, within two weeks from learning from speaking to other kids of the same age who were about 12 or 13, I already knew how to hotwire a car. It was exposure [as well] to other children that had been there for criminal reasons.”

A quote he often heard by staff members, was “all care and no responsibility”.

“That basically means don’t get attached to the kids. I can sort of understand it from their point of view, they have thousands of kids going through there each year, but at the same time… there was a lack of love as well. I think because of that, the majority of the kids grew up with a very distorted value system which led them on to… think that the criminal lifestyle was OK.”

Horton pictured at age 8, around the time he went to McKenzie Residential School in Yaldhurst, where he suffered multiple physical assaults.

A witness in the first stage of the Inquiry, Dr Rawiri Waretini-Karenam, spoke of the boys’ homes he was sent to after escaping his “extremely violent” father.

“I probably experienced more physical altercations in the boys' homes than I did in the prisons.'

He described boys’ homes as being a “training ground” for prison.

When he was first imprisoned in 1987, Dr Waretini-Karena said he knew about 80 per cent of the inmates, having met them in various state care institutions.

The public may find Horton’s and other survivors’ experiences in state care as “unpalatable”, but he says it’s something that needs to be known.

Only 15 years ago did Horton get access to his welfare file.

“I did it after a class member on a course did it. I did the same and thought ‘this will make interesting reading’. For about three days afterwards I was in this sort of fugue trying to process it. There was a lot that I had forgotten or put behind me in a way.”

Other institutions Horton was placed in include the Methodist Children’s Home, Glenelg Health Camp and Cholmondeley Children’s Home, all in Christchurch, as well as private foster homes, many of which he experienced abuse and neglect in.

Horton says he constantly experienced bullying growing up.

Now age 51, Horton is still suffering from the psychological impacts of his childhood.

“I’ve always been reasonably well-spoken. And I didn't fit in with their [the other boys] ways of expressing themselves, so I was constantly subject to bullying.”

A common theme in the homes was one older child being referred to, even by staff, as the ‘King Pin’ or KP, who determined the treatment of other children.

“The staff actually encouraged that there be a kingpin amongst the boys. And I guess their reasoning was it gave them a focal point. Unfortunately, it was up to the King Pin on how he enforced his authority.”

While living at Holdsworth in Whanganui at age 13, where Horton was first exposed to gangs, the ‘KP’ took a particular interest in him and forced him to perform sexual acts.

If boys were caught fighting, staff would often direct the boys to box each other.

Sometimes, Horton experienced physical assaults by others, on a daily basis.

He claims staff members would allow the assaults and fights to continue, if they believed Horton “deserved it.”

In between stints at various facilities, Horton was sent back to stay with his parents.

Prior and during his involvement with DSW, Horton, when he was aged five and younger, was subject to severe physical assaults by his parents and sexual abuse by a relative, all of which led him to not be properly toilet trained until age five.

Living with his father again, who drank heavily, at age 13, he slept in a coal shed in the backyard.

One of the most traumatic moments of his childhood was during a stay at a boys’ home in Rangiora, which was contracted by DSW.

“When I was 13 or 14, on one particular night I was held down by three boys and raped. I don’t want that included for the shock value. I want to say it as an indication of the sort of things that happened in state care.

“When I viewed my DSW file, I can actually isolate when it happened, even though the incident itself is not mentioned, because I never spoke to the staff about it at the time, for a couple of reasons. One, I wasn't sure I'd be believed, and two, in every home I was in there was a ‘no narking’ culture.

“Reading the file shows a marked change in my behaviour at the time it happened. A complete lack of personal hygiene. I was no longer looking after myself. I was lying more frequently and also what was referred to as a lot of attention-getting tricks,” he says.

Now age 51, Horton frequently experiences flashbacks about his experiences from his time in care.

He is anti-authority, actively avoids institutional environments and does not participate in groups.

After receiving an inadequate education in state care, he has no formal qualifications and has independently learnt skills to enable him to work, but has sporadic employment as he has suffered from depression and anxiety.

He has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, being suicidal, substance dependency and binge eating.

“I have a very good brain and in different circumstances I feel that I could have gone far.”

WHERE TO GET HELP:

1737, Need to talk? - Free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor

Depression.org.nz - 0800 111 757 or text 4202

Lifeline – 0800 543 354

Suicide Crisis Helpline – 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)

Kidsline – 0800 54 37 54 for people up to 18 years old. Open 24/7.

Youthline – 0800 376 633, free text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz, or find online chat and other support options here.

Samaritans – 0800 726 666

What's Up – 0800 942 8787 (for 5–18 year olds). Phone counselling available Monday-Friday, noon–11pm and weekends, 3pm–11pm. Online chat is available 3pm–10pm daily.

thelowdown.co.nz – Web chat, email chat or free text 5626

Anxiety New Zealand - 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)

Supporting Families in Mental Illness - 0800 732 825.If it is an emergency click here to find the number for your local crisis assessment team. In a life-threatening situation call 111.