MSA

A man who was in both faith-based and state care wants the public to wake up to historical abuse and be concerned that it could still be happening.

Darryl Smith, 57, first went into care at the age of seven at Marylands School in Christchurch, which was run by the Catholic St John of God order. He later went into state care.

Smith said countries are judged on how well they treat their children and New Zealand fails in this.

I believe it is up to a village to raise a child and if you see something going wrong with a child, you are supposed to go, ‘what is wrong?

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A group representing survivors of abuse while in faith-based care believes victims could die before there is any satisfactory resolution to their claims against churches.

The Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based institutions wants an independent authority set up immediately to deal with claims for redress.

Spokesperson Liz Tonks said survivors should not have to deal with the institution they were abused in and be re-traumatised.

She said time was running out for many victims and already some have not lived to see the results of coming forward.

Tonks said survivors cannot wait any longer.

One of the people reporting to this Commission is doing so on behalf of her father who died two weeks after coming forward about being abused and he will never see the outcome of speaking out.

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The Catholic Church has lost its bid to keep the identities of perpetrators and those accused of covering up abuse secret at the upcoming Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry hearing.

The hearing, beginning on Monday in Auckland, will hear from survivors of historical abuse in faith-based care, and the redress processes that followed.

The Catholic Church – in an application supported by the Anglican Church and Salvation Army – said they sought non-publication orders because they had not been given enough time to contact those who would be named, and the families of those now deceased.

They also raised concerns of natural justice for those deceased.

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The chair of the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care, Judge Coral Shaw, today declined all but one of the non-publication applications made by lawyers acting for the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army and the Anglican Church.

The applications asked to temporarily keep the names of deceased perpetrators of abuse surpressed.

Steve Goodlass from the Network for Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based Institutions speaks about the impact of this decision on survivors preparing for the Commission’s redress hearings next week.

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Teacher Edwin John Downing is on trial at the High Court in Auckland. He has denied 13 charges, including sexual violation, sexual conduct with a young person and sexually grooming a young person.

The police interview of one of the two complainants was recorded on DVD and on Monday was played to the court.

The boy told the police he had met a man on the gay dating app Grindr.

He asked how old I was. I didn’t really want to tell him at first. I didn’t tell my age but told him I was still in school … I eventually told him I was 15 and he said that was OK.

The prosecutor said as part of the police investigation, officers received text messages sent to and from Downing’s phone. Some messages were of a sexual nature and sent to a person later identified as a 13-year-old boy.

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