Girl raped in home, court told
chris.hyde@fairfaxmedia.co.nz Teens sent to Oamaru’s only Child, Youth and Family (CYF) safehouse in the late 1990s thought they were going into a warm and welcoming home.
Instead, the Crown alleges four of the 73 most vulnerable children in the town were subjected to horrifying sexual abuse at the hands of caregiver Frank Russell Walmsley, now on trial on 101 charges involving eight complainants in the Timaru District Court.
Ninety-eight counts are sexual, and 51 represent sexual offending over a period of time.
The defence says the abuse ‘‘simply did not happen’’.
Fairfax can now reveal, at the direction of Justice David Gendall, that Walmsley was contracted as a CYF caregiver at Oamaru’s Tern St family house between 1995 and 2000. The Walmsleys were given the contract after six years’ experience as foster parents.
In February 2000 a complaint from one teen resulted in the house being searched by police. No charges were laid but the Walmsleys decided not to continue their CYF contract.
One of three girls allegedly abused by Walmsley between 1995 and 2000 took to the witness stand yesterday. Her voice quiet and tears flowing, she told the court he raped her three times in a single day.
‘‘I thought when I first got there that it was a warm and welcoming home,’’ she told Crown Prosecutor Andrew McRae. ‘‘[My] first impression was that he was a caring and loving family man.’’
She told the court she had stayed home from school one morning when Walmsley pulled her from the shower and raped her. She managed to fight him off but he forced her to perform oral sex so she tried to bite him and he stopped. He then bent her over a hand basin and raped her again, she said.
‘‘I screamed, squealed. He was hurting me. I was trying to look for something to hit him with. I had one free hand and I turned the taps on.’’
She said she put her head under the water and tried to drown herself. As she surfaced she noticed blood running down her head, which she had cut on the tap. The jury was shown photographs of the scar, which she still has.
‘‘He was grunting and groaning like he was enjoying himself.’’
She fled the house and got drunk before a friend walked her back that night. She refused to go in, crying and drinking from a glass bottle.
Walmsley heard her, coming outside, forcing her overalls undone and raping her for a third time that day, she said.
‘‘I was trying to scream but I couldn’t. I looked for the bottle. I wanted to hit him with it.’’
When a voice called from the house, Walmsley told her not to tell anyone and left her, she said.
The day had begun with crossexamination by defence counsel Craig Ruane of Oamaru’s CYF supervisor at the time. He asked why teenagers would be placed in the six-bedroom CYF home.
She said it was a short-term foster house when there was nowhere else to place them and an option for those placed in CYF custody by the Youth Court. ‘‘CYFs would make a decision about where they go,’’ she said.
Ruane said they were ‘‘difficult kids with difficult backgrounds’’.
She agreed: ‘‘Sometimes it was the only option. It’s pretty difficult to get foster carers who will care for teenagers.’’
Because of the nature of the children, staff, particularly males, were trained not to put themselves in positions where they were alone. ‘‘Generally by sheer numbers at a family home you would be safe. It’s a pretty open environment in terms of people and staff.’’
The trial continues.