Survivors abused while in Catholic Church care, many of who were disabled children and at-risk young people began giving evidence at an Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry public hearing today.
The day began with Donald Ku giving evidence of the abuse he suffered while at Marylands School in Christchurch. Along with being abused at Marylands School, Ku is also a survivor of the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit, foster care and other state-based care.
Marylands School was run by the religious brothers of the Hospitalier Order of St John of God from the 1950s to 1984. Among the more than 500 students who attended the school, there were a small number of Māori students. Some were horrifically physically, sexually, and emotionally abused by both students and the brothers.
Donald Ku was placed at Marylands School just before his tenth birthday by the Department of Social Welfare.
Horrific experiences
He lived at Marylands School until he was 14 years old. Donald recalled some of the horrific experiences of sexual abuse at the hands of Bernard McGrath, a former brother of the Hospitalier Order, who was in 2018 jailed for 20 years following accusations stemming from his time in Australia.
"He would have his penis out, and try and make us suck his penis. I got kicked away because I didn't know what I was doing."
Indeed much of the abuse suffered by boys at the school were at the hands of McGrath, and Catholic Church lawyer Sally McKechnie acknowledged the horror inflicted on boys during McGrath's time in New Zealand.
"Bernard McGrath is one of Australasia's worst child sex offenders."
Ku, with the aid of his lawyer, spoke of instances where he would be threatened if he were to say anything about the abuse.
"After a while, you spoke about adapting to the sexual things that were happening at Marylands?" his lawyer asked. Donald replied through his lawyer that, he was taken to a morgue as a threat in case he ever spoke up about the abuse.
