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Up to a quarter of a million children, youth and vulnerable adults were physically and sexually abused in New Zealand’s religious and state institutions from the 1960s to the early 2000s, a public investigation revealed.
An interim report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry found that the children, some as young as nine months old, suffered years of abuse, including rape and treatment with electric shocks, by staff at state and psychiatric care facilities, the clergy and foster carers.
The report estimated that up to 256,000 people were abused, representing nearly 40% of the 655,000 people in care during the period, with the majority of the abuses occurring in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The pain and anguish that has been caused in New Zealand’s history is unforgivable,” said Public Service Minister 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 too often states, the opposite happened.”
The report said that the majority of abuse survivors were between the ages of 5 and 17. Most were abused over a period of five to 10 years.
The abuse included physical assault and sexual abuse, and staff at some psychiatric institutions forced male patients to rape female patients.
It also included the misuse of medical procedures, including electric shocks to body parts, improper naked searches and vaginal exams, and verbal abuse and racial slurs.
“Sometimes I would get shock treatment twice a day,” said Anne, who at 17 was admitted to a psychiatric institution in 1979.
“The records (said) that I went blind, then they gave me shock treatment again that night,” she told the investigation.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Royal Commission in 2018 saying the country needed to face “a dark chapter” in its history, and then expanded it to include churches and other religious institutions.
The report said that the probability of abuse of children and young people in religious or faith-based homes ranges from 21% to 42%.
It found that the number of people passing through care institutions was six times higher than previously estimated.
“In any assessment, this is a long-standing and serious societal issue that needs to be addressed,” the report said, adding that there was evidence that the abuse continued today.
The Royal Commission will make recommendations to the government in its final report. It is one of the longest and most complex committees of inquiry ever conducted in New Zealand.
Wednesday’s interim report comes after public and private reparations hearings in which survivors courageously recounted harrowing accounts of physical and sexual abuse.
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