A man has described the distress he felt as a young teenager being forced to witness the rape of girls as young as 10 while in state care.
Warning: This story contains details of child abuse.
Kimberley Centre in Levin was housed people with intellectual disabilities. Photo: Supplied
He told commissioners at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care public hearing in Auckland on Monday that nurses at Kimberley Centre in Levin were paid by local men to offer the young disabled girls.
He said none of the girls could speak or communicate properly.
Commission lead counsel Ruth Thomas said the survivor was forced to watch and participate.
"This was carried out by a group of men who arrived at Kimberley at night on a regular basis," she said.
"These men were given access to rape and sexually abuse disabled children by paying money to some of the nurses who facilitated and enabled this abuse to occur in the institution."
The survivor said Kimberley Centre was a hellhole and a place for abuse. He said he did not have a disability but had run into trouble in foster care and been placed in the hospital.
He said he ran away from the centre but was found and taken back.
"I experienced long-term impacts from my time in care. How could I put it? You had your heart torn from you, because you'd gone from one place thinking you're going to be safe, into another place where you're going to be safe and then onto another place," he said.
"If these things never happened to me, I could have been a totally different person."
The hearing continues today, examining the use of control and restraint and resulting abuse in disability and mental health care.
Twenty-three survivor witnesses or their whānau will give evidence about their time in care facilities throughout the country between 1950 and 1999.
Thomas said the experiences reflected that of many in state care at the time.
"You will also hear evidence from a researcher's observations of institutional life that the overt physical abuse and neglect most commonly described and discussed is just the tip of the iceberg," she said.
"This witness says that the real insult of an institution is what lies beneath that tip of the iceberg. The loss of personal identity through the restrained and regulated circumstances of institutional life where people that this researcher observed spent approximately 80 percent of their time engaged in no form of purposeful activity. They were sitting, standing, staring and snoozing."
Where to get help:
Sexual violence -
Victim Support 0800 842 846
Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00
HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655 - push 0 at the menu
For male survivors -
Road Forward Trust, Wellington, contact Richard 0211181043
Better Blokes Auckland, 099902553
The Canterbury Men's Centre, 03 3776747
The Male Room, Nelson 035480403
Male Survivors, Waikato 07 8584112
Male Survivors, Otago 0211064598
For female survivors -
Help Wellington, 048016655
Help, Auckland 09 623 1296.
For urgent help: Safe To Talk 0800044334.
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.