Survivors recall details of abuse

WELLINGTON: Survivors of abuse in state care have shared harrowing details of the harm they suffered from those who were supposed to be looking after them.

The royal commission investigating the abuse has for the first time been publicly hearing evidence from survivors, their advocates, lawyers and researchers.

The commission is looking at what happened to children, young people, and vulnerable adults in both state and faithbased care between 1950 and 1999, and will report and make recommendations to the Government in 2020 and 2023.

Yesterday, Keith Wiffin and highprofile former inmate Arthur Taylor gave evidence in Wellington.

Almost 30 people will be called to give evidence over the next two weeks.

Mr Wiffin was abused at the staterun Epuni Boys’ Home in Lower Hutt when he was a child.

He said the abuse started in the van on the way to the home, when another child smashed a guitar over his head.

He told the inquiry staff were also violent and made it clear the children were secondclass citizens.

‘‘They were to be obeyed at all times, and to not obey them was to risk corporal punishment.’’

He said he was later abused by the house master, Alan MoncreifWright, who later pleaded guilty in 2011 to sexually assaulting three victims, including Mr Wiffin.

Another who gave evidence was highprofile former inmate and ‘‘jailhouse lawyer’’ Arthur Taylor, who was released on parole earlier this year having spent 39 of the past 46 years in prison.

Taken to Epuni Boys’ Home in the 1960s when he was 11, he said staff were violent and would punish children for no reason.

‘‘They had a massive leather strap that they used to really whip you with.’’

‘‘I remember one night I was in the showers and I had been whacked with this strap several times . . . and one of the other boys said, ‘Look at those big welts up your back, Arthur’.’’ — RNZ