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Two women told the Abuse in Care investigation that their older sister, who later died, tried to protect them from being abused while they were in foster care.
Tanya and Georgina Sammons.
Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae
All three were put into care from an early age.
Georgina and Tanya Sammons told their story and that of their older sister Alva to the Royal Commission in Auckland today.
Alva died 19 years ago at the age of 26 after he stopped taking the medications necessary to keep her alive.
He had had a heart valve replacement to repair the damage from undetected rheumatic fever.
He left behind a 2-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter.
Tanya and Georgina only found out after the death of their older sister who had tried to protect them.
“She told me once that she allowed herself to be sexually abused, because she thought that if she put up with it, maybe it wouldn’t happen to us and we wouldn’t have to put up with it,” Georgina said.
The girls were raised by a family that they say was abusive and difficult.
They were physically beaten by the adoptive father and sexually abused by an adoptive brother.
Georgina recalled once that her foster father caught her smoking and beat her so badly that it made her wet and black-eyed.
She said that the next day a social worker visited her.
“I had to hide under the bed so the social worker wouldn’t see my black eyes.”
In other visits by social workers, they did not dare to tell them what was going on for fear of being beaten later by their host family, he said.
“We would have a hiding place for that.”
Tanya remembers that her adoptive father killed her cat.
“ He pretty much just picked up the cat and flattened it against the concrete. ”
She was made to bury him.
“ It was something he turned to when he was upset. ”
Georgina said her older foster brother was allowed to punish them.
“Our foster brother rubbed his fists with his knuckles on our scalp until our scalp was raw.”
Georgina said she was regularly raped by a foster brother since she was on Form 1 or 2.
This continued until he was 14 years old and ran away from home.
He said he filed a complaint with the police, but the police did not take it any further.
Later, the sisters learned that Alva had reported what was going on and her concerns for her younger sisters, but nothing came of it.
Georgina said that the abuse they suffered had affected every aspect of their lives.
Both Georgina and Tanya have filed individual complaints with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), but have not been able at this stage to include a complaint on behalf of Alva and her children. and grandchildren.
Georgina said that the long process of seeking MSD redress had been very stressful with having to tell and retell her stories to many people.
“Although we lived it as children, we have to continuously relive it and now, as adults, it is as if this has been our life. It’s like a long road and when will it end. ”
He said MSD has not treated them with empathy.
“Since I was a teenager and the abuse came out, there has been no justice from any adult figure, from the CYFS workers, the Police and MSD, there has been nothing.”
“We need to be treated with empathy and not be treated like liars.”
He also wants the government to recognize the continuing effects of harm on people who have been abused and on the next generation.
