Prosecutor Charlie Piho. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Content warning: This story discusses abuse.
A Crown prosecutor has told a court that seven men with chequered pasts are not making up claims they were abused as boys in a south Auckland state care home.
In a rundown part of the former Kingseat psychiatric hospital, the Crown alleges a state home for troubled and vulnerable boys became the scene of abuse for almost a decade in the mid-2000s.
The home was run by Tirohonga Hou Mo Nga Rangitahi Charitable Trust and two former staff, a man and a woman, are facing trial.
None of the defendants or complainants can be named and much detail about the case cannot be reported for legal reasons.
In his closing address for the five-week trial in Manukau District Court, prosecutor Charlie Piho told jurors the seven men, who were boys at the time, should not be disbelieved because of their later run-ins with the law.
Two of the men gave evidence from prison and all have had previous convictions.
"These are people with chequered histories, the men you might have thought however never shied away from their histories ... they owned it," Piho said.
"The defence seemed to suggest, at times, that because of those histories those men could not be believed," he said.
"I would suggest those histories don't tell you much, if anything, about whether the men have been telling the truth in this case."
The seven men were aged between 6- and 17-years-old when they were sent by court order to live at the boys home at different times between 2005 and 2014.
Piho said the alleged abuse spanned sexual and physical, one teen forced to have sex multiple times with a woman and once when he refused she then urinated on him, and other instances of boys being punched, tied down or made to strip off their clothes as punishment for not doing what they were told.
He said the woman claimed she was not working at the boys home at that time but employment records showed she had been a caregiver.
Piho said the state care facility had a culture of bullying, was "unstructured and unprofessional" and the rooms were "cold and basic", where food appeared to have been rationed and boys were hungry.
"How it appeared to outsiders was a far cry from what some of the staff members were doing to some of the boys there."
During the trial, defence lawyers for the two defendants suggested the men were making the allegations up and that some were motivated by the possibility of compensation.
Lawyer Oliver Troon. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Piho said this was not the case.
"You've heard them, the men who until this trial had been pushed to the margins of our society, whose experiences at the trust were out of view."
He said the boys who stayed in the state care home had few support networks in place and that could be why the alleged abuse went undetected.
Last year, the police arrested four people - two men and two women - following a two-year investigation that was a result of a complaint from Oranga Tamariki. One of the women did not stand trial.
At the opening of the trial, three former staff members from the home pleaded not guilty to multiple criminal charges.
One of the men has since had all the charges against him dismissed.
The woman had two of the seven charges against her dismissed, and the other man had three of the 10 charges against him dismissed.
The trial began with 10 complainants and is finishing with seven.
Earlier, defence lawyers for the defendants said their clients denied the alleged abuse and asked the jury to consider the reliability of the complainants.
Lawyer Oliver Troon represents the man standing trial and urged the jurors to dispassionately assess the case.
"Allegations of this nature, historic and in state care do inspire sympathy and or prejudice by their very nature. You are not to entertain those emotions."
Lawyer Susan Gray. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Lawyer Susan Gray represents the woman standing trial and questioned the complainants' credibility.
"They have to be truthful and they have to be reliable. The Crown case relies on you being satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the complainants they are going to call are both truthful and reliable.
"For reasons which will unfold during the trial ... I say they are not. They are not truthful, they have a very distant relationship with the truth."
The defence is due to close on Thursday.
Where to get help:
If it's an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
Men and Trauma New Zealand: 0800 636 263
If you have been abused, remember it's not your fault.
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