Abuse in state care: Woman s suspicion about miscarriage validated during inquiry
6 May, 2021 09:57 PM
4 minutes to read
Warning: This story discusses graphic details of sexual violence.
A woman who was raped by a welfare home staff member and became pregnant has outlined her ordeal before the inquiry into abuse in care.
Neta Kerepeti was 13 when placed in the Bollard Girls Home in Auckland in 1974.
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She came to the attention of the Social Welfare Department at 12 years old.
On one occasion after running away she was picked up by a police officer and raped.
Her ordeal continued in the first foster home she stayed in and then at the Bollard Girls Home.
Warning: This story discusses graphic details of sexual violence.
A woman who was raped by a welfare home staff member and became pregnant has outlined her ordeal before the inquiry into abuse in care.
Neta Kerepeti.
Photo: RNZ
The 59-year-old was first sexually abused by her father when she was about 7.
She came to the attention of the Social Welfare Department at 12 years old.
On one occasion after running away she was picked up by a police officer and raped.
Her ordeal continued in the first foster home she stayed in and then at the Bollard Girls Home.
The first humiliation was the mandatory internal examination by a doctor checking for sexually transmitted diseases.
Warning: Graphic content in this story might be distressing to some readers.
A steadfast determination to tell the truth saw a 14-year-old girl endure months of solitary confinement at a social welfare-run home in the mid 1960s.
Photo: 123rf.com
She was sexually abused by her half-brother but no one ever believed her.
Taru, who is now 70, spent most of her life being labelled a liar.
After spending some time in a girls home in Horowhenua, she was shipped off to Kingslea in Christchurch.
From day one she was put into a room which was euphemistically called the clinic. We went into a cell and I stayed there for months and months at a time. There was just one cell, there was nothing else in there. Sorry, there was a bed but it was bolted to the floor, that was all that was in that room and me and I was in there for months and months.