Woman Recounts Horrors In Foster Care Families: 'Raped By The System'

A woman in New Zealand has put the state and the Anglican church under a shadow by saying that she and her sister were subjected to rape and violent assaults in foster care while the authorities looked the other way.

Ms M, whose name has been withheld to protect her identity, told the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in Auckland that she was placed in foster care as a 7-year-old along with her older sister when their mother died in Christchurch in 1969. Her parents had separated when she was 2 years old.

She said both she and her sister were raped, abused, assaulted and terrorised for five years in the foster home by a man in his 50s. "No one from the Anglican Social Service checked on us."

Covered in bruises and with black eyes, they used to go to school but no one would ever ask if they were okay. She said that their foster father used to assault his wife and once witnessed a situation where he threatened to kill her with a shotgun.

She said that the man used to drug her older sister, named Janie, and lend the girl to his mates. Janie was 10 to 15 years at that time. Janie finally mustered courage to go to the police and have their tormentor arrested, but a jury acquitted him despite incriminating evidence.

"Everyone thought we were liars after the trial," she told the commission. She also said that the man was seen stalking them on several occasions, prompting them to shift back to Christchurch. There the sisters parted.

Ms M said she was abused by every man who was supposed to protect her, excepet one. One of them was a priest, who kept on raping her even after adopting her. Though she eventually went to the police, she was told that she couldn't win the case. The reverend confessed to having sex with her but told the police that it was consensual sex.

"If people had truly wanted to help us it wouldn't have taken a lot to see we were being horrifically abused repeatedly, but people were blinkered."

She also blames the authorities for the death of her sister Janie, who died of cancer at the age of 51, which she believes was an early demise due to the abuse they had to face. "I had been abused by every man that was supposed to look after me (except one) so I thought I am the common denominator, so it must be my fault," she said.

The abuses left lifelong scars on Ms M, including mental illnesses and addictions. She wishes she could have a husband and children but hasn’t had a relationship in over 30 years.

"I felt like I was being raped over and over again by the very system that claimed in good faith to redress historical abuse," she said. Ms M requested for acceptable compensation to be offered to fighters of exploitation in state and faith-based care. Something that could "make me happy ... feel a little secure".