Four more boys claim they were abused at CYF home

By LOUISA CLEAVE

A further four young people who lived at a Child, Youth and Family home in South Auckland have made allegations of verbal and physical abuse by caregivers.

CYF will not say how many children it has interviewed.

The department has carried out an internal inquiry into allegations of abuse at its "family home" in Windrush Close, Mangere, last year.

It closed the house for a week in mid-December and removed the caregivers at the centre of the allegations.

Ken Rand, acting director of operational support services, said four young people had "identified concerns relating to verbal and physical abuse".

The department refused to discuss its own investigation because it has referred the matter to police.

It expects police to interview all 50 adolescents who were placed at the home last year.

Mr Rand said the matter was referred to police in December and was being handled by the Mangere CIB.

However, Counties Manukau police spokeswoman Angeline Barlow said Mangere CIB boss Detective Sergeant Paul Bason "had no knowledge" of the file.

Other inquiries with police have failed to find who is in charge of the investigation.

Mr Rand said CYF began making its own inquiries after receiving information from a concerned social worker.

"Inquiries were begun and subsequently a further complaint [from another young person] was made to the police."

CYF will not say if the complaint was that laid by teenager Anton Purvis, who spoke to Paraparaumu police last December but has never been interviewed by CYF.

Anton, 15, claims a caregiver sat on his chest and pinched the skin on his arms with a pair of pliers.

He told police that boys were taken into a room and subjected to abuse almost every night.

He alleges they were hit with hard objects and thrown against the wall.

Anton's father, Grant Harris, said a CYF worker rang him in December to discuss the house in Windrush Close.

Mr Harris said the worker told him he had been to the police and laid a complaint because his own son had been beaten at the house.

The worker asked Mr Harris to talk to Anton about his five weeks at the house, in September and October last year.

The CYF worker declined to talk to the Herald last week, saying he had been involved in the internal investigation.

CYF said it could find no evidence of an employee's son living at Windrush Close.

Mr Rand said Child, Youth and Family conducted rigorous checks of family home caregivers, "which include formal interviews and assessments, reference checks and police checks".

Windrush Close was the couple's first permanent appointment.

It is used as a short-term residence for troubled youth while CYF determines whether they will be placed in long-term care or returned to families.

Mr Harris said CYF contacted him after the Herald published details of the inquiry on Saturday.

He is meeting senior management in Wellington today. He said it was the first time he had been contacted by CYF and he was critical of the amount of time it had taken to acknowledge the allegations.

Anton's complaint alleges he was subjected to four hours of physical assault and verbal abuse after ringing his CYF case manager to complain.

Anton said his Otara-based case manager immediately told the caregivers and he was called a "nark".

"That night Anton was brutally dealt to," said his father, who wants the case manager fired.