Wellington (TIP): Up to a quarter of a million children, young people and vulnerable adults were abused in New Zealand’s faith-based and state care institutions in the past several decades, a public inquiry revealed on Wednesday.

An interim report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into historic abuse of children in state care estimated that up to 2,56,000 people were abused between 1950 and 2019. This accounts for almost 40% of the 6,55,000 people in care during that period.

“The hurt and anguish that has been caused in New Zealand’s history is inexcusable,” said Minister for the Public Service Chris Hipkins, who described the report as a “difficlt rad”.

“All children in the care of the state should be safe from harm, but as the testimony sets out all too often the opposite was true.”

The report said most abuse survivors were aged between 5 and 17, but some were as young as 9 months and as old as 20. Most were abused over a five to 10 year period. The abuse included physical assault and sexual abuse, with staff in some psychiatric institutions forcing male patients to rape female patients. It also included the improper use of medical procedures including electric shocks on genitals and legs, improper strip searches and vaginal examinations, and verbal abuse and racial slurs. “Sometimes I’d have shock treatment twice a day,” said Anne, who at 17 was placed in a pychiatric instutution in 1979. “The records (said) I went blind, then they gave me shock treatment again that night,” she told the inquiry. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Royal Commission in 2018 saying the country needed to confront “a dark chapter” in its history, and later expanded it to include churches and other faith-based institutions.  (Reuters)