Church apology 'wonderful'

The Anglican Church has apologised to three women for the abuse they suffered at St Mary's home for unmarried mothers in Otahuhu more than 40 years ago.

The apology came during an emotional two-hour meeting this week between Auckland Bishop John Paterson and the three women - Dianne Macdonald, Lorine Forbes and Diane Oswald.

Miss Macdonald said the women had suffered emotionally for many years as a result of their time spent at St Mary's.

She went there in 1963 looking for help after being too scared to tell her mother or boyfriend that she was pregnant.

During the three months she stayed at the home the 18-year-old was forced to scrub floors on her hands and knees with tiny brushes. A strict matron would slap the backs of her knees for not working hard enough.

Each week she and several other girls were forced to strip, lie on beds where she said they would be examined by a doctor who would "thump" their breasts and touch them inappropriately. They were never told what to expect during childbirth or what would happen - only that they weren't fit to keep their babies.

When the day came for Miss Macdonald to finally have her baby she was slapped for crying during labour and refused pain relief.

After 20 hours of labour her baby was born but she was not told the gender or allowed to see it, despite several pleas to do so.

Miss Macdonald said hearing the bishop apologise this week for the way she was treated has gone a long way in helping to repair some the pain and suffering.

It is the first step in what she hopes will be closure after 42 years.

The second step will come when the apology is put into writing later this month. The woman will then meet the Church again to discuss a compensation claim, the amount of which is still unknown.

Miss Macdonald said the bishop was "wonderful" and his apology genuine. "It turned out one hundred and ten per cent better than I thought it would. The bishop never interjected. He was wonderful."

The chief executive of the Anglican Trust for Women and Children, Wilson Irons, said the Church had no way of checking what the three women said about what happened to them at St Mary's between 1958 and 1965, because all the staff they said had been involved were dead.

But he accepted practices such as not letting mothers see newborn babies had taken place and were "abhorrent" by today's standards.

"There were a whole lot of things that happened which, from where we are sitting now looking back at it, we would shudder, but in those times some of that stuff was felt to be the best practice," he said.

"Some other things were clearly wrong.

"The bishop did apologise on behalf of the Anglican Church, who ran the St Mary's Hospital then, for any injury or unjust treatment that the women experienced while they were here."

The hospital closed in 1972. The trust now uses the buildings for a range of social services.