Ellen O Dwyer12:25, May 09 2021
Oranga Tamariki/Supplied
Hamilton Boys Home was in operation from 1959 to 1990.
The night 13-year-old Daniel Rei arrived at Hamilton Boys’ Home was the first time he thought he was going to die. He arrived at his room and was covered in a blanket, hit, kicked and punched repeatedly by other boys. It ended in a black eye, swollen lips, loosened teeth and bruises. But the beatings were far from over. “Later I’d find out [the violence] goes on in degrees, there’s kiddy stuff, and then it gets bigger and bigger and bigger,” Rei told the Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care.