Student tells of bullying, abuse
Female parishioner recalls abuse at hands of priest
Aformer Dilworth student who fought off abuse by a teacher later convicted as a paedophile has described a Lord of the Flies culture of violence, bullying and cover-ups at the Anglican school.
Neil Harding, 55, attended the Auckland Anglican school over 1977 and 1978, and shared his experience yesterday as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
Harding was accepted into the school aged 11, coming from a single-parent family.
He experienced severe homesickness along with struggling with the “harsh military-style establishment”.
There was much violence and bullying among the boys, and lack of staff supervision.
He was desperate to return home over the weekends and dreaded returning.
“Every Sunday morning began the dread feeling in the pit of my stomach, as I prepared for the 6pm church service and drop-off, that signalled the next week of hell at Dilworth.”
During his first year he was noticed by the Very Reverend Peter Taylor, who was married with young children. Taylor is now dead. Taylor was also known as “Pumper Pete”, a “kind of paedophilic reference”, Harding said.
“I had my alarm bells up, I suppose. It was nice to receive positive attention from him, because it was rare at Dilworth and made me feel special.”
One day he was invited to Taylor’s house, alone. In a room he sat him down in the corner, trapped, and said he “wanted to speak to me about God”. Taylor then touched Harding inappropriately, prompting Harding to fight him off, and leave the house.
Telling on Taylor, known at the school as “pimping”, was never an option, said Harding, due to the strong “code of silence”.
Soon after, Harding pleaded with his mother to leave the school, and in 1979 she agreed and he started at co-ed Takapuna Grammar.
He approached police about Taylor in 1997, concerned he could be continuing to abuse boys, but found a lack of interest from officers.
The officer did check the database and confirmed Taylor was a convicted paedophile.
In 2018 Harding made submissions to the school board, sparking a process of students coming forward.
“Dilworth was complicit through their knowledge of abuse as well as their inaction,” Harding said.
Earlier, Marlborough parishioner Jacinda Thompson shared her experience of fighting with the Anglican Church over 15 years to get redress and an apology for sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of a priest.
Over 2004 and 2005, Thompson, trying to deal with the traumatic loss of a young child, started attending the Nativity Anglican Church in Blenheim. She sought the support of Reverend Michael Van Wijk, but instead was sexually harassed and abused, and psychologically bullied.
When she approached Vicar Richard Ellena she found he was not surprised. “The Vicar guessed it was [Van Wijk] before I even said his name.”
She had a meeting with Bishop Derek Eaton and Ellena and was told her abuse was “pretty low end compared to what was going on overseas”.
She lodged a police complaint in 2014, but in 2016 they concluded no charges would be laid against Van Wijk.
She took her case to the Human Rights Review Tribunal, where the church admitted it was responsible, receiving a landmark settlement and apology. The church paid Thompson $100,000 for humiliation and hurt suffered, and in recognition of its flawed handling of the complaint.