Twisted and raised scars run across the top of Alan Nixon’s hands like topographical maps of the abuse in his past.
The marks are the physical reminders of what the Brothers of St John of God did to him as a child but the psychological scars run deeper.
Nixon ended up in the care of the Brothers because he was in the care of the state.
“My mum couldn’t look after me so they put me in a foster home,” he said.
“They strongly believed in giving rations. They’d give me a half a glass of water – everything would be half – so at night-time I’d go because I was thirsty, all the taps used to be wrenched tight, so I found a way of how to get a drink of water. I’d stick my cup or find something and stick it into the toilet and scoop it out, scoop it out from there.”
Nixon’s carer would belt him across the head for quenching his thirst from the toilet.
“They couldn’t put up with me so I got shipped to another family home that would put up with me and then I was just shipped around and went to Braemar Hospital and then moved to Wellington and then Miramar Girls’ Home. I was too young to go to a boys home so they stuck me in a girls home … because I was the only little boy I got molested by the older girls.”
Among his state files was a Marlborough Express article from 1966 that provides an insight into attitudes towards children like Nixon at the time.
The story described the police search for the person responsible for trying to set a police car on fire.
The culprit was found with a bottle of beer under each arm, a tin of tobacco, a penny and his pants on back-to-front.
The article’s writer obviously found the spectacle amusing.
“It was obvious he couldn’t handle his liquor too well … which wasn’t at all surprising – he is only four years old!”
That four-year-old was Nixon.
The circumstances provided a concerning insight into why the young boy was made a state ward.
The Department of Social Welfare placed Nixon in the care of the Brothers of St John of God at Marylands School in Christchurch without telling his parents.
“I got sexually abused by the Catholic brothers, quite badly,” Nixon said.
“I was about eight-and-a-half, nine years of age when I went down there.”
Several brothers abused the young boy over the six years he spent at the school, including notorious paedophile Bernard McGrath.
“I was only supposed to have been there for 12 months but there was no other place where they could put me,” he said.
Even the school holidays offered no reprieve.
“When we used to go home for Christmas and the holidays, I’d go home for about a couple of days and then I’d get shipped to Epuni Boys’ Home. While I was in Epuni Boys’ Home, I got sexually abused by Mr Ngatai,” he said.
John Ngatai worked in several state institutions over a period of 15 years.
