Discharged with just $21

After enduring years of sexual abuse, racism, and solitary confinement in children’s homes, a woman was discharged by the state with $21 and no support.

Gwyneth Vicki Beard , now a 59-year-old social worker, testified yesterday at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care about about the terrible abuse she experienced.

Beard told about her upbringing in an abusive household in Aranui, Christchurch and how she often ran away to try to escape. She spent much of her time living on the street and in cars, even while attending Wainoni Primary and Chisnallwood Intermediate.

When Beard was about 12 her mother put her in state care. She was taken to Strathmore Girls’ Home where she was raped by two older girls as part of her ‘‘initiation’’. Most of her time at Strathmore was spent locked up in a cell because Beard tried to run away too often.

‘‘All there was to do in the cells was sit there and wonder why you were there. I was never given any books or anything to do,’’ she said.

She recalled an incident where the principal beat her with the pipe of a vacuum cleaner after she swore when she stubbed her toe.

Beard said the worst thing about Strathmore was the medical examinations. Her legs were strapped into stirrups and a female staff member would hold her down, while the doctor performed an invasive examination to check for sexual diseases.

She remembered the doctor making comments about her not being a virgin, which she experienced as being blamed for being a victim of sexual abuse. One of the doctors would sexually abuse her during the examinations, but the female staff member would not do anything to stop it.

In May 1975 Beard was made a ward of the state. Later she was sent to Kingslea where she again spent most of her time in a cell. Beard later ended up back at Strathmore, where examinations by the sexually abusive doctor continued. She was 21 when she was officially discharged from social welfare. ‘‘I was given $21 by the state and I was on my own.’’