The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry has released a daily schedule of witnesses for its Contextual hearing commencing 29 October 2019.

The Contextual hearing will see 28 witnesses give evidence relating to abuse in the care of the State or faith-based institutions between 1950-1999.

On 29 October Arthur Taylor will describe his three stints in Epuni Boys’ Home and the abuse he endured and witnessed there, his incarceration in a psychiatric facility as a teenager, and the road he took from State care to prison.

On 30 October witnesses include Fa’afete Taito who will give evidence about his experience as a Samoan New Zealander being removed from his family as a child following intervention by the State.  He will share his account of abuse and neglect after being made a State ward and sent to Owairaka Boys’ Home in the 1970s.

The following day Sir Kim Workman will give evidence about his early experience as a Police youth aid officer in the 1970s, and his subsequent work detailing the racial profiling of Māori and the disproportionate number of Māori in care.

On 8 November Mike Ledingham will give evidence about the abuse he and his two brothers experienced at the hands of a priest while students at St Joseph’s Catholic School in Onehunga.

A full Contextual hearing witness schedule is available here.

Contextual hearing witness evidence summaries are available here.

The Contextual hearing is open to the public. The entire hearing will also be live-streamed on the Abuse in Care Inquiry’s website. Footage from the hearing will be available to download each day.

Media enquiries: Hannah Grant, Hannah.grant@abuseincare.org.nz; 027 298 2094