I was conceived out
of wedlock, because of my mother being raped I was just two and a half
months old when I was taken from my mother’s arms, by the catholic
church then placed in the care of one of their Catholic orphanage. From
the beginning, I was taught that my mother was sinful and that I would
be too unless the devil was beaten from my soul. I was sexual abused in
the nursery from a tiny young girl of eighteen months old by three lady
workers for four years.
My childhood abuse in the orphanage, is New Zealand’s shameful, dirty secret of physical, mental, verbal and sexual abuse of innocent children by nuns, lay staff, the older girls and the priest and bullying at two orphanages in Christchurch. From the age of five years old I was made to work on their farm and later on in their kitchen and laundries, both at Mount Magdala – St. Joseph Girls Orphanage and Nazareth House.
At night times three nuns would ritual attack of taking my clothes off, tying me to both ends of the bed and savagely attacking me with the buckle of her belt, hula-hoop and a large whip as they tried to suppress my well and to break my spirit.
They Promised Heaven is also about my fight with the catholic church to accept responsibility for the past institutionalized abuse of children and young people while in their care and to admit – unconditionally – that there was wrong doing by the two order of nuns and the priest.
It is story which needs to be heard and to read it will tell of the horrific upbringing in two catholic orphanages. In 1997, when I watched a Prime Television documentary exposing the decades of abuse by the Good Shepherd nuns at the Christchurch orphanage, I realized then mine wasn't the only lost childhood.
My name will not likely be familiar to most New Zealanders but my story is one that all will be shocked to read about.
Whilst unbelievable that such acts of cruelty happened in New Zealand, They Promised Heaven,But Led me to Hell also portrays my great strength of spirit and determination. I am a mother of four and I have lived in Whangarei for the past fifty years, with my husband Brian. My story is one story of many worldwide. Ann Thompson
My childhood abuse in the orphanage, is New Zealand’s shameful, dirty secret of physical, mental, verbal and sexual abuse of innocent children by nuns, lay staff, the older girls and the priest and bullying at two orphanages in Christchurch. From the age of five years old I was made to work on their farm and later on in their kitchen and laundries, both at Mount Magdala – St. Joseph Girls Orphanage and Nazareth House.
At night times three nuns would ritual attack of taking my clothes off, tying me to both ends of the bed and savagely attacking me with the buckle of her belt, hula-hoop and a large whip as they tried to suppress my well and to break my spirit.
They Promised Heaven is also about my fight with the catholic church to accept responsibility for the past institutionalized abuse of children and young people while in their care and to admit – unconditionally – that there was wrong doing by the two order of nuns and the priest.
It is story which needs to be heard and to read it will tell of the horrific upbringing in two catholic orphanages. In 1997, when I watched a Prime Television documentary exposing the decades of abuse by the Good Shepherd nuns at the Christchurch orphanage, I realized then mine wasn't the only lost childhood.
My name will not likely be familiar to most New Zealanders but my story is one that all will be shocked to read about.
Whilst unbelievable that such acts of cruelty happened in New Zealand, They Promised Heaven,But Led me to Hell also portrays my great strength of spirit and determination. I am a mother of four and I have lived in Whangarei for the past fifty years, with my husband Brian. My story is one story of many worldwide. Ann Thompson
