Name Mr VT
Hometown Born in Samoa; then Ōtautahi Christchurch
Age when entered care 10 years old
Year of birth 1986
Time in care 1996-2003
Type of care facility Foster homes; Family Homes; youth unit – Kingslea Care and Protection Unit in Ōtautahi Christchurch; youth programme – Eastland Youth Rescue Trust near Omaio; youth justice residence – Lower North in Te Papaioea Palmerston North.
Ethnicity Samoan
Whānau background Mr VT’s grandparents adopted him when he was about 4 years old, and he did not find out he was adopted until he was 19 years old. Mr VT grew up assuming his birth mother was his sister. He has not had much contact with his birth father. He has a younger brother, who did not go into care.
Current Mr VT has two daughters from previous relationships and does not have any contact with one of them; the other daughter has had kids, so Mr VT is a grandfather.

“All the money in the world won’t wash this away”

Growing up, I thought family violence was normal. It was just ‘discipline’ – it was the norm.

Someone at school noticed I was turning up with bruises and black eyes, and alerted Children, Young Persons and their Families Service. I got hit by my dad if I was backchatting, being disrespectful, or not listening. It was discipline, but it was quite violent. In my CYFS notes there’s a report that my mum had tied my legs together and beaten me. A paediatrician told CYFS I had bruising consistent with being assaulted with an electrical cord.

CYFS received many reports of the abuse I was experiencing and the injuries I had, but nothing much was done to help me.

In 1996 CYFS made an application to put me into interim care. I was 10 years old. My family tried to hide me, but eventually I went to a foster family, then I was admitted to Kingslea and I was there on and off for several years.

Like any 10-year-old, I missed my parents and just wanted to be at home. I cried a lot, and I was angry that I had to be away from my family. I hated Kingslea so much that I tried to numb the hurt by drinking shampoo and window cleaner and got taken to hospital.

I was restrained a lot by the staff at Kingslea. At times, they’d use so much force it would make me think, “I’m sure they can’t do that to a kid”. They’d throw me to the ground and put a knee in the back of my neck or head. Sometimes they’d pin me down using their knees.

At Kingslea, I was bullied, assaulted and intimidated by other residents. I was depressed and wanted to harm myself. In my notes I was described as feeling lonely, unloved, worthless, sad and withdrawn. CYFS was still recording that under no circumstances should I go home, because it wasn’t safe – but even after writing that, they sent me home to my parents.

In 1999 I was sent to Eastland, an outdoor pursuits programme for boys aged between 14 and 17 years old who were physically strong and under Youth Court orders. I was only 13 years old, and under care and protection orders, not a supervision with activity order. I should never have been sent there.

I was meant to be at Eastland for six months, but I ran away. The two and a half weeks I spent there were incredibly brutal.

The man who ran Eastland, Neville Walker, had been involved with a previous similar programme, which had been investigated by CYFS for abusing kids. Neville started Eastland on the same property almost straight away and got paid by CYFS to take boys on his programme.

As soon as the social worker dropped me off, I was made to sit on a log and have my hair shaved off. When I protested, I was hit around the ears. I was threatened with violence if I ran away. The first few days were spent doing hard labour, while Neville ordered us around, yelling and swearing at us. He also said racist things to me, such as calling me a “coconut cunt” or telling me to move my “black ass”.

Almost all the other boys on the programme were violent towards me. They stole all my new clothes, beat me on a daily basis, and threatened me with more hidings. Once, they smashed an old-fashioned washing machine roller over my back.

Other times, the older boys tied me up or chained me and other boys to a pole outside at night-time. They’d yank on the chains from their tents. Sometimes, we had dog chains tied around our necks and the other boys would drag us around and urinate on us. They stubbed out cigarette butts on my face and made me lie down in the freezing river in my underpants. Once, while tied up, another boy cut a tattoo out of my arm with a pocket knife.

I told Neville about it, but he didn’t do anything. Once, his kids shot me and another boy with BB guns, while he sat there watching and laughing.

I ran away with another boy and stole a rifle and some bullets. Neville caught the other boy first, then fired several shots from another rifle into the bush to try to draw me out. I came out of the bush with my hands up and surrendered. Neville made me kneel down, took the rifle off me and smashed the butt of it into my head, splitting my head open. I bled everywhere. He kicked me in the ribs and threatened to kill me if I tried anything else.

I tried to run away again and I was made to stay up all night scrubbing a tarpaulin floor with a toothbrush, wearing only my underpants. The punishment lasted three nights, and one of the nights I had to do it completely naked. I was really sleep deprived and several times I fell asleep, then got woken up by being kicked in the face. During those nights, I was sexually abused by two different boys, and I had injuries to my anus as a result of one of those assaults.

I told Neville about the sexual assaults. He got angry and tied one of the boys to the back of a horse by his hands, then rode the horse around and dragged the boy behind him.

I ran away again, was picked up by a stranger and taken to hospital. A doctor called CYFS and informed them I had been physically assaulted. The police interviewed me and I said I’d been beaten by Neville with a rifle butt. The police later faxed through an eight-page statement to CYFS about my allegations at Eastland, but they only ever investigated the sexual assault allegations, and nothing about Neville. Even then, the sexual abuse allegations weren’t investigated for more than a year. Not only did CYFS put me in a dangerous place, but they absolutely failed to address the things that happened to me.

I know now that because of what happened to me, CYFS stopped using Eastland and took all the boys off the programme. I should never have been sent there. It was incredibly violent and what happened there scarred me for life.

I had a medical examination, which showed a lot of scars on my body including a four-centimetre scar on my scalp from where I was smashed with the rifle butt. The doctor also noted scars on my anal region. But later, police said no charges could be laid, because there was no medical evidence to support my allegations.

I was put back in Kingslea again later in 1999 until April 2000. This long period of time in Kingslea was because I was waiting for CYFS to organise a placement with my family in Samoa. There were huge delays with this, mostly caused by my social worker. In September 1999, the same CYFS manager who said I should go to Eastland wrote that she was worried I would become “yet another Christchurch case that sits in residence”. The proposed placement fell through and I stayed in Kingslea.

I wrote to the CEO of CYFS in 2000, saying: “I just want to know how long I am in this place. I am just confused. I do not know when I am getting out. I do want to make some changes in my life. I just want to go home.”

In 2002 I was sent to Lower North Youth Justice Residence in Palmerston North. I was bullied and threatened by other residents, and in response I fought back. The staff saw me getting beaten up. The only thing I could do was defend myself. All I remember from being in the secure unit is getting locked down a lot. I was isolated and let out for an hour a day. Most of the day I just sat and stared out of the window. I didn’t do any school work.

In 2003 when I was 16 years old, I was remanded to prison. I shifted from one State institution to another. CYFS closed their file on me a few weeks later.

I’ve been in and out of jail ever since. I’ve probably spent two years in the community since 2005. I am quite institutionalised – I don’t know how to live in the real world, I feel safer in prison.

I hate the system, and I don’t trust anyone in it. The system abandoned me and traumatised me.

I got an apology and a settlement, but it felt hollow. All the money in the world won’t wash this away. They knew not to put me in places like Eastland but did it anyway. I feel like I was a happy kid who had to create a mask to survive, and I had so many different masks that it got confusing.

There’s a photo of me in my CYFS file from when I was a teenager. I wasn’t very big or scary. I was just a kid.[370]