Stark warning over continuing abuse
What happened to children in the past is still happening today: This was the concern raised by witnesses presenting evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care this week.
The royal commission was set up to investigate abuse in state and religious-based care institutions over a 40-year period from January 1, 1950, to December 31, 1999.
But Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft this week pleaded with the panel of commissioners to use its discretion to also include more modern claims.
‘‘Abuse is still happening. We know that. Even on the selfdisclosed figures of Oranga Tamariki, it is between 7 and 10 per cent and it is likely to be much higher,’’ he said.
‘‘We still hear the sad and harrowing accounts of abuse by staff and abuse by other young people sharing the residence.’’
Becroft said young people were still being remanded in adult police cells in solitary confinement and living in secured residences. He called it a form of structural abuse. There are 6400 children in care. Becroft said 200 of them were in youth justice residences. He wants all of the residences shut down.
The former principal Youth
Court judge was one of 29 witnesses who provided evidence to the royal commission over the past two weeks during contextual hearings in Auckland. This evidence will set the direction of the public hearings expected in March next year.
Many of the witnesses, including Becroft, said history is repeating.
Lawyers Sonja Cooper and Amanda Hill work on legal claims by people who suffered abuse.
Cooper estimated about 1100 claims had been settled against various agencies.
‘‘While no amount of money can heal some wounds, we would say no survivor to date has received adequate compensation for the harm done to them,’’ Cooper said.
The complainants were aged from 18 to 80. Cooper was concerned at the number of young clients they still have. ‘‘Eventually, as survivors continue to come forward ... I would say virtually every young person I act for in the Youth Court has a potential claim ... which is a very depressing thing to say.’’
Hill said the state was still not acting properly when it came to removing children. Children, especially tamariki Ma¯ori, were removed from their homes because they were poor or they committed misdemeanour crimes.
‘‘At times, [authorities] would receive reports or notifications of abuse or concern about a child and failed to act,’’ Hill told the commission. ‘‘Sometimes, the reports piled up about a child or their family, particularly about abuse in home environments, and still nothing happened.
‘‘This is still a major problem today. In contrast, other children, particularly Ma¯ ori children, were removed from their families, sometimes for years, often just because the family was too poor.’’
Many of the witnesses explained abuse was not just physical and sexual. It included psychological and emotional abuse, Hill said.
‘‘So, children in care were told they were useless, that they would end up in prison.
‘‘They would never amount to anything, their parents didn’t love them, nobody wanted them, they were worthless and nobody cared what happened to them.’’
‘‘We still hear the sad and harrowing accounts of abuse by staff.’’ Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft