Govt hired private eyes to spy on abuse victim

A man who was abused as a child in state care says he is vindicated by findings that the Crown was spying on him, despite official denials.

AS a 10-year-old boy, Keith Wiffin was beaten, sexually abused and psychologically tortured in a state-owned boys’ home.

Forty years later, he came forward as a witness to help two brothers who were suing the Ministry of Social Development for abuse they suffered while in the care of the state.

In response, Crown lawyers hired private investigators ICIL to dig up dirt on witnesses and Wiffin, now 59, is certain he was put under surveillance.

‘‘Instead of the Crown taking responsibility for what happened to us, they set out to try and vilify us and cast us in the role of the enemy and it just felt like more abuse,’’ Wiffin said.

For years, officials denied witnesses in the landmark

White Case were probed. But a State Services Commission inquiry into the use of private security consultants, released late last year, uncovered a slew of damning revelations about how government agencies used spy firms.

And that’s prompted Wiffin, a cleaning contractor, to break his silence.

In Wiffin’s case, a blue car with two men turned up outside his home in Kilbirnie,

Wellington, over a period of three weeks. Neighbours also clocked the strangers, who appeared to be watching Wiffin’s movements.

‘‘Two men, who looked liked detectives, would turn up at random times of the day and just sit and watch,’’ Wiffin said.

They even turned up when Wiffin was attending his mother’s funeral in Auckland, in 2007.

Wiffin took his concerns to lawyer Sonja Cooper, who has acted for hundreds of victims of abuse in state care, and took the White Case to court on behalf of the brothers. She told her clients the Crown was ‘‘determined to win at any cost’’.

The commission’s inquiry into use of private detectives said Wiffin was a ‘‘credible witness’’ and there was evidence of surveillance.

Wiffin was eventually paid $20,000 by the ministry and received a written apology from two senior officials for the abuse he suffered at Epuni Boys’ Home in Wellington.

Despite feeling vindicated by the report, he’s still angry at the outright denials when he put his suspicions to a senior manager at the ministry.

ICIL, which was sold in 2009, was paid $90,000 for its work on the White Case.