WARNING: This article discusses sexual abuse
and suicide which may be distressing.
Two
days after his arrival at Marylands School, a young boy was taken to
the church and forced to perform sexual acts on two religious brothers
entrusted to care for him.
They pulled out a Bible and told the boy: “This is what God means by love”.
A week later he was taken back to the church and raped on the marble altar.
This
is one of countless cases of horrific historical abuse against young
boys at the Christchurch school, which has been referred to by survivors
during the Royal Commission of Inquiry as “hell on earth”.
In an interim report released today, the inquiry’s 48 findings :
- Marylands School did not provide adequate education and safeguards for the children sent there
- The students were abused, neglected and deprived of their human rights
- The religious brothers who abused the children sought to actively evade accountability
- The
Catholic Church, the Order and the State have not yet been found
accountable for the magnitude of the tragedy that unfolded at Marylands
School and Hebron Trust for failing to address the abuse
‘Abhorrent’ abuse should never have happened, says bishop
Archbishop Paul Martin SM said the scale of abuse set out in the report is abhorrent and should never have happened.
“Today’s
case-study report highlights the horrific abuse and suffering that took
place, and the failure of individuals to ensure safety and manage
redress adequately,” he said. “Confronting these realities is a
significant and necessary step as we all continue to transform the way
we manage redress and ensure the safety of everyone in a Church
environment.
“The
abuse described should never have happened. Nor should any abuse
happen. I want to restate categorically that the bishops of the Catholic
Church in Aotearoa New Zealand have zero tolerance for abuse. No form
of abuse, misconduct or inappropriate behaviour is acceptable in the
Church community.
“The Church must continue to confront
the difficult truths of the past, including the inexcusable abuse and
suffering described in the case study report.”
As part of
its investigation of the Catholic Church, the commission undertook a
case study, including a public hearing, into abuse in the care of the
Order of St John of God.
Members of the religious order cared for children and young people in Christchurch from the early 1950s onwards.
Marylands School and the Hebron Trust were established in Christchurch in 1955 and 1984 by the Order of St John of God.
Until
the late 1980s successive governments placed disabled children and
young people in the facilities to be trained. Marylands was designed to
support and educate boys, as young as 6, who had disabilities or
learning and behavioural problems.
Five
brothers were sent from Australia to staff the school, most were
untrained as teachers without specialist skills to educate disabled
children.
Within the first year of the school’s operation, all five brothers had been accused of abusing the children.
The
brothers routinely raped, sexually assaulted and beat the boys. The
children were forced to perform sexual acts on the brothers, sometimes
more than one at a time, as well as other boys.
The
report titled ‘Stolen Lives, Marked Souls’ states that of the 37
brothers who ministered in the Christchurch community when the Order
operated Marylands, 21 had allegations of abuse made against them.
Two
of the brothers were convicted of committing indecencies against
children. One remains in an Australian prison where he is likely to die
while the other has already died. Other trials did not take place due to
illness of the brothers or survivors.
One Marylands
survivor Darryl Smith recalled being raped when he was seven years old
by one of the brothers. They told him no one would believe him if he
spoke up.
Smith has since gone on to self-publish several accounts of the abuse he suffered and is a historical child sex abuse advocate.
Abused boys ‘easier prey’
One
survivor was made to have sex with a younger boy. A brother then told
the boy that he was “like him”, an abuser, and he would get in trouble
if he disclosed the abuse.
Sometimes the abuse would happen behind closed doors, other times in plain sight of everyone as a punishment.
Abuse was so normalised, the boys started sexually abusing each other.
A boy known to have been abused by one brother became “easier prey” for another brother.
One
boy who had an intellectual disability was sent to Marylands when he
was 10 years old. He spent three days in school and then was put in the
kitchen, made to wash dishes for the next four years.
He recalled being separated from the other boys, unable to play with or eat meals with them.
He was sexually assaulted in the swimming pool by himself by one of the brothers.
On one occasion he was made to gas puppies to death with a brother. He was then instructed to take the dead puppies to the dump.
Another
Marylands survivor spoke about being gathered into a room with a group
of other boys and forced to perform oral sex on one of the brothers.
When he tried to pull away he was hit with a baseball bat so hard his
nose bled.
He
described the brothers getting angry while they were abusing him as he
often wouldn’t hold still but he soon “adapted” to the abuse.
He was taken to the hospital morgue on one occasion and forced to see a dead body as a scare tactic.
The boy told multiple teachers, social workers and even police when he was caught running away but no one believed him.
His
teenage years were horrible, and it wasn’t until he went to prison that
he learned to read and write and by the time he was 25 he was a patched
member of a gang.
“It is sad to say that the only sense of belonging and support I ever felt was being part of a gang.”
Another survivor recalled a boy being forced to strip naked outside in front of others and was sexually assaulted as punishment.
‘Racially targeted’ abuse
Some brothers held negative racist attitudes toward Māori students, often calling them “n*****s”.
One
Māori boy was forced to dress in a grass skirt and perform a Māori song
and dance for the brothers. After the performance, the boy was forced
to participate in group sex with the brothers.
Another Māori student said boys would often fight him because of his ethnicity.
A ‘reign of terror’
After
the Order left Marylands in 1984 the Bishop of Christchurch invited
brothers to establish a youth ministry to support at-risk people, often
“street kids”, many of whom were Māori.
Despite the
allegations of his abuse at Marylands, Brother Bernard McGrath, one of
the Order’s most prolific serial rapists, was appointed the sole brother
of the ministry, named Hebron Trust.
From there his “reign of terror” only escalated.
Boys
as young as 8 went to Hebron, although it was mostly aimed at teenagers
who were homeless, referred by social service agencies or by the
criminal and youth justice system.
About three-quarters
of survivors turned to drugs or alcohol as a way of coping with the
abuse they endured. Many had contemplated or attempted suicide, others
had died this way.
One survivor began getting in trouble
with the police in his early teens but instead of being dealt with by
the court, he was sent to Brother McGrath’s house to do community work
such as gardening and chores.
He said McGrath routinely
sexually assaulted him in his office. On one occasion when he raped the
boy, the brother he “was in with the police” and no one would believe
the boy if he spoke up about the abuse.
‘McGrath ruined my life’
One survivor said McGrath ruined his life.
He was subjected to routine rapes by McGrath at Hebron Trust from the age of 15 to 19.
He
said McGrath would put a scarf in his mouth and tape it shut with duct
tape so he wouldn’t make any noise when he raped him. The boy was also
handcuffed and blindfolded, stating McGrath would become aggressive and
choke him.
“I often thought I was going to die,” he told the inquiry.
The
boy said McGrath would often put things in his drink that made him
dizzy. He also gave the boy alcohol while he was supposed to be
counselling him through drug and alcohol use.
The
survivor, now an adult said he got involved with gangs and has been in
and out of prison since the 1990s. He mostly lives on the streets or
with gangs and has attempted suicide several times.
McGrath
had a trusted reputation in the community, with survivors often
describing him as friendly and supportive upon meeting him. This made it
difficult for victims to disclose the abuse as they were often told
McGrath would “never do that kind of stuff”.
The report
states McGrath often supplied drugs to the boys before sexually
assaulting them and sometimes made boys engage in sexual acts with their
family members or watch while he sexually assaulted their family
members.
One
boy was six when he was sent to Marylands. On his first day, someone
had defecated in the gym and one of the brothers accused him of doing
it.
The brother then rubbed his face in the faeces in front of everyone as punishment.
He
recalled McGrath raping and beating him often. He said he was beaten so
severely once that his knees cracked and even as an adult he still has
the scars.
When he was 10 he was caught holding a packet
of cigarettes belonging to another boy. As punishment, he was made to
smoke the whole packet in front of everyone.
“He made me inhale the smoke on each puff. This started my addiction to cigarettes.”
In his adult life, the man had been in and out of prison and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic anxiety.
“I want to be heard. I want justice to be served for all of us who were hurt by these monsters.”
‘Death’ at school
Some boys witnessed violence that they believe may have led to the deaths of other boys.
According
to Marylands attendance register, six boys aged between nine and 14
died while at the school or shortly after leaving it.
Survivors
described instances that ended in “suspicious circumstances” such as
receiving a severe beating and never returning to the school.
One
survivor described a brother rushing at one boy who had trouble
understanding things. He said the brother pushed the boy over and he
smacked his head on the concrete and began bleeding heavily. He was then
taken to the medical room, never to be seen again.
“The way he was just hit I knew he wouldn’t make it. He was helpless.”
Another
survivor spoke of a brother who pushed a boy into the pool and he sank
to the bottom. Soon after a funeral was held for the boy.
Police
said they have not found “any records of death of children while at
Marylands” and do not “hold any information about the circumstances of
these deaths”.
Abuse in the orphanage
Children
at the St Joseph’s Orphanage were aged between birth and 11 years and
described nuns taking them from their beds and delivering them to
priests or brothers as punishment. There, they would be sexually
assaulted.
One survivor recalled being taken to a chapel
with a group of other boys. He said he was injected with a sedative and
forced to carry out sexual acts on other boys, nuns, brothers and
priests.
Some of the boys were also taken to Marylands as punishment.
‘Violent, emotionally uncontrollable boys leaving Marylands
The
devastating impacts on the survivors once they left Marylands saw about
three quatres turn to alcohol and drugs as a way of coping. Others
struggled with their mental health and attempted suicide.
One
caregiver at the school told the inquiry a telling sign of the abuse
was seeing the boys’ mood change as some became “violent and emotionally
uncontrollable’.
The report stated Marylands was a “terrifying and unpredictable place” with little evidence of any schooling.
The young boys had no means of escape and would often talk about ending their lives.
“The
Inquiry acknowledges the trauma likely to have been experienced by many
at Marylands whose experiences are not and will probably never be
known”.
The report describes what happened at the hands
of the brothers of the St John of God at Marylands School and Hebron
Trust as the “worst possible” type of abuse and neglect.
It
stated that this is not a report about “bad apples” but reflects that
those responsible who “shamefully” enabled the abuse to continue must
take accountability for their failings in caring for and protecting the
children.
