Survivors recount trauma as New Zealand releases child abuse report

24/7/2024 17:45

        Moeapulu Frances Tagaloa was repeatedly abused from the age of five to seven by a popular Catholic brother who taught at a school which neighboured the Catholic primary she attended in Auckland, New Zealand.
        
        "He was a popular, well-known teacher but he was also a paedophile and unfortunately there were other little girls that he abused," said Tagaloa, who said her abuse happened in the 1970s.
        
        She didn't remember the abuse until she was an adult and then she started to suffer flashbacks.
        
        "It was very traumatic experiencing that trauma and I had to work through that," she said.
        
        Tagaloa was one of more than 2,300 survivors who testified to a New Zealand inquiry, or royal commission, into abuse in state and church care between 1950 and 2019.
        
        The more than 3,000-page report from the inquiry, which is one of the longest and most extensive in the country's history, was tabled on Wednesday in parliament and contained 138 recommendations, including calling for public apologies from New Zealand's government and the heads of the Catholic and Anglican churches.