Abuse in Care: Men raped disabled children, paid staff for access

Monday, 11 July 2022

People with disabilities experience higher rates of violence than nondisabled people. Disabled people and their whanau are sharing stories of historical abuse at the Abuse in Care – Royal Commission of Inquiry Disability, Deaf and Mental Health institutional care. The hearing runs from July 11 to July 20.

Content warning: This story contains accounts of sexual abuse which some readers may find distressing.

He was just a young boy when he was forced to watch adults rape a young disabled girl, then they tasked him with cleaning her up once they were done - horrific testimony from a former resident who lived at the Kimberley Centre for disabled children.

He says he can remember the staff laughing as the young girls screamed in agony.

**READ MORE:

* Abuse in Care: Survivor shares story of sexual abuse through sculpture to find freedom

* Abuse in care: Disabled survivors put into care as 'containment from society', inquiry finds

* The unnoticed epidemic of violence and abuse against disabled people

**

Accounts of disabled children being raped in state institutions for money have been shared on the first day of the Abuse in Care – Royal Commission of Inquiry Disability, Deaf and Mental Health institutional care hearing.

It’s the first time people with learning disabilities have had the opportunity to talk about what happened to them in institutional settings. Over the eight days of the hearing, 23 survivors and their whānau will share stories of abuse in care.

A propaganda video from 1964 to promote such institutions was played and audio-described at the hearing. It depicted the Kimberley Centre as giving “the mentally retarded a full life and hopeful future”. This could not be further from the truth.

In a statement from a witness referred to as Mr EI, he described moving around foster homes as a child before being placed in the “hell hole” of Kimberley in 1963, despite not being diagnosed with a mental or physical disability.

At 13 years old, he remembers being woken up late at night by “somebody that looked like a nurse” and being taken into a room of adults, “partly dressed” children and a naked girl lying on a hospital bed with restraints.

The boys were forced to watch girls being raped. Afterwards, the boys were made to “clean up the girls”. On other occasions, the boys were forced to have sex with them. If the boys didn’t comply, Mr EI remembers having his genitals tied with string while he was tied to a chair.

As the girls, as young as 10, screamed and cried and the staff laughed as it happened, Mr EI recalls one of the men making a comment along the lines of, 'Well, this is what I'm paying you for.'

He also remembers overhearing conversations between the men and the nurses, with comments such as: “Can you get someone else?” or “I'm not happy with that one” and even some men asking to “take a girl home for the weekend”.

He remembers the men coming to visit Kimberley more than 100 times, but estimates they came more often because he would run away sometimes.

While at Kimberley, he saw also children having their teeth pulled out without any pain-numbing injections and overhearing staff saying: 'Don't worry about it, they don't feel pain.'

”Of course we feel pain. Everybody feels pain…” Mr EI said in his statement. “It makes me so angry to think about this.”

In her opening statement at the hearing, Counsel Assist Ruth Thomas said institutions “categorically failed” disabled people and “repeatedly and catastrophically” allowed systemic abuse to happen.

She said in the past, the Government “intentionally” put thousands of disabled people and children into institutions. Society structures enabled Government legislation for disabled people to be segregated.

She said this created a significant impact on people’s attitudes towards disabled people and those experiencing mental distress as outside of society.

There was a eugenics movement at the time to “protect the moral character of society from the menace of feeble-minded” people and “prevent contaminations of the gene pool by segregating disabled children out of mainstream schools”, she said.

Other stories were told of physical abuse, neglect and over-medicalisation.

Irene Priest has learning disabilities and is nonverbal due to having forceps applied to her head during birth.

She was 5 years old when she was moved into Kimberley in 1962 – her parents thought it was a place she would be cared for and get training.

Within the first four weeks of arriving at Kimberley, Irene contracted hepatitis. Her family went to pick her up straight away, and found Irene sitting on a bed in isolation, rocking back and forth.

“She didn’t even have her teddy bear that she had taken with her,” her sister, Margaret Priest, said at the hearing.

When Irene Priest’s family visited her at Kimberley, she often sat in a metal restraining chair with straps during meal times. Kimberley staff would also seat her in it when she would get upset. Irene Priest injured herself trying to get out of it.

Irene Priest was also over-medicated by staff with a “concoction” of drugs for conditions she wasn’t even diagnosed with.

Her sister said that after taking so many unnecessary drugs, Irene couldn’t walk forwards – she would just walk around in circles looking up in the ceiling.

It took 10 years for her to become drug-free and she no longer falls over while walking. She’s much happier and more “peaceful”, said Margaret Priest.

Margaret Priest said doesn't know how Irene survived all the abuse and neglect, but says her sister “has a resilience that is remarkable”.

The family had never received a formal apology from the state, she said, adding that the only acceptable apology would be changes being made and monitoring carried out so abuse like this doesn't happen again. She said the Government needed to take more control over training, qualifications and salaries for caregiving staff.

Royal Commission co-chair Paul Gibson, who has lived experience of disability, said many stories of disabled people in the past have been lost. New Zealand needs to “hear, learn, listen and make changes to ensure it doesn't happen again”.

The hearing continues.

Sexual violence: Where to get help

• Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00, click link for local helplines

• Victim Support 0800 842 846, text 4334, webchat safetotalk.nz or email support@safetotalk.nz

• The Harbour Online support and information for people affected by sexual abuse.

• Women’s Refuge 0800 733 843

• Male Survivors Aotearoa Helplines across NZ