***Distressing content warning***

Catherine Hickey represented her brother, Paul Hickey.  Paul Hickey was of Irish Catholic descent and had connections to Tainui through his paternal grandmother. Paul was hit by a truck at six years old and as a result had a serious head injury and was paralysed on one side of his body. Paul was committed to Porirua Hospital when he was 15 (1975) and died by suicide while in State care at the hospital when he was twenty years old (1980).   Catherine spoke of how the family were denied access to Paul, who disclosed to his family the sexual, physical, medical, and psychological abuse he was experiencing. Catherine shared that their mother would not consent to him being institutionalised and as a result he was made a ward of the State, in order that he could be committed to Porirua.