Upper Hutt sexual abuse victim says abuser was quietly moved to South Island school

A former Catholic boarding school student who was abused by senior staff says one of them was quietly moved to another school in the South Island without being punished.

Patrick Cleary died in July, aged 82, before he could give his statement to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into State Abuse. His daughter Tina Cleary gave a statement on his behalf today.

I wanted to give voice to my father’s words,” she said. “He wanted to speak to it.

Patrick was sexually abused by Father Francis Durning and Father Patrick Minto while he was a student at St Patrick’s Secondary School in Silverstream, Upper Hutt, in 1951. He was 13 at the time, and kept it a secret for decades.

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