Chapter 15 — Foster care

Witnesses

Twenty (20) of the 24 witnesses had been in foster care or institutional care since their first year of life. As previously stated, most of these witnesses were the children of lone mothers who were reported to be unable to care for them for various reasons.

Four (4) witnesses reported that they lived with their parents for the first few years of their lives but were then placed in foster care following family breakdown, parental illness or marital separation. These witnesses were initially admitted to Children’s Homes, Industrial Schools or other institutions with siblings from whom some were then separated.

Among those witnesses who reported being in out-of-home care for lengthy periods, seven witnesses reported that their placement in foster care followed a series of other placements over a period of up to seven years. These witnesses reported being in Children’s Homes, county homes, hospitals or Industrial Schools for varying periods of time prior to being placed in foster homes that, in most instances, became their final childhood residence. All of these witnesses were the children of lone mothers with whom they reported having no further contact.

Seven (7) other witnesses were fostered before their first birthday from the institutions where they had been born, including county homes, mother and baby homes and nursing homes.

Six (6) witnesses reported being transferred to foster homes from different placements, including other foster homes, where they had been happily settled over a number of years. Two (2) of the six witnesses reported being placed with foster families following the closure of the residential institutions where they had lived for many years.

Twenty (20) witnesses reported spending between 11 and 18 years in foster care and other forms of institutional care. Five (5) of those witnesses continued to live with their foster families after the age of 18 years in circumstances that are referred to later in this chapter under the heading of current experiences.

Three (3) witnesses reported being fostered and in other forms of alternate care for between eight and 10 years. Two (2) of those witnesses gave accounts of being adopted by their foster parents. The third witness was transferred from an abusive foster placement to an institutional setting. A fourth witness reported being in foster care for less than a year prior to being returned to their biological family.

Record of abuse

Eight (8) male and 16 female witnesses who reported being abused in foster care made reports in relation to 22 different foster homes. As stated above, the reports relate to a 64-year period between 1931 and 1995, and refer to all four types of abuse, physical and sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse. Reports of abuse by a witness may be either descriptions of a single incident of abuse or multiple experiences of being abused over a long period of time. In most instances witnesses who reported abuse in foster care made reports that referred to more than one incident of abuse and more than one type of abuse. The most frequently reported abuse types were physical and emotional abuse, as detailed below: Twenty one (21) witnesses reported physical abuse. Twenty (20) witnesses reported emotional abuse. Seventeen (17) witnesses reported neglect. Fifteen (15) witnesses reported sexual abuse.

Twenty three (23) witnesses made reports of more than one abuse type and nine witnesses reported all four types of abuse, as shown in the following table:

Abuse types and combinations	Number of reports
Physical, sexual, neglect and emotional	9
Physical, neglect and emotional	4
Physical and emotional	4
Sexual, neglect and emotional	2
Physical, sexual and neglect	1
Physical, sexual and emotional	1
Physical and sexual	1
Physical and neglect	1
Sexual	1
Total	24

Combinations of physical and sexual abuse were reported by half of the witnesses, in addition to further reports of emotional abuse and neglect.

Physical abuse

The wilful, reckless or negligent infliction of physical injury on, or failure to prevent such injury to, the child1. This section of the Report presents the evidence given to the Committee by witnesses regarding their experiences of being physically abused and injured by non-accidental means, and their lack of protection from such abuse while in foster care. The forms of abuse reported included hitting, punching, kicking and bodily assault with implements. Witnesses also reported being physically abused by being burned, spat upon and immersed in water.

There were 21 reports of physical abuse from eight male and 13 female witnesses in 19 foster care placements. Four (4) witnesses reported being physically abused in two particular foster placements.

Fifteen (15) of the 21 witnesses who reported being physically abused described being beaten regularly with sticks or household implements, including wooden spoons, rolling pins, broom handles, dishes, and coat hangers. One witness reported being beaten with a leather harness and a stick. Others described being ‘thrashed with a chain’ and beaten with a horsewhip. Five (5) of the witnesses reported being beaten on a daily basis. One witness recounted how her foster parents took turns to hold her down and beat her. Witnesses also described being slapped, punched and kicked by their foster parents and other family members. The locations of physical abuse described by witnesses included the foster homes, farm sheds and fields. It’s the physical beatings and kickings. He ... (foster father)... would, for no apparent reason ... deal out.... It was like a daily ritual, any whimsical time that suited him ... he beat us.... I have this vision in my mind of cowering in a corner and being beaten with a stick, and kicked. • She ... (foster mother)... always slapped in the head or in the face and you would always be in a corner, just getting one slap after another into the face. ... You couldn’t even think past putting your hands up to stop the slaps hitting you. ... You would be trying to protect yourself and she would be screaming “don’t you dare protect yourself” and you would try and put your hands down but it just couldn’t be done. That happened a good few times, that’s what happened when you did things wrong.

Four (4) witnesses described being burned by various means including being struck with hot pokers, pushed into fires, and having hot liquid thrown over them. Two (2) witnesses described having their heads held under water until they thought they might drown, as punishment for bed-wetting. Two (2) foster mothers were reported to regularly wash out the witnesses’ mouths with soap for allegedly telling lies or as a general punishment. Mother ...(foster mother )... got the poker, she stuck it in the fire and took it out, it was so hot, you could see through it and said to my ...foster father... “hold her”, my...(foster)... father said “this is going too far, no way”.... She said “hold her” and he held me back in the chair, she said to put my hand out, and she placed the poker in it ...distressed... and all I remember is passing out.... The pain, I’ll never forget it....

Witnesses reported being physically abused in response to various perceived misdemeanours and other behaviour, including bed-wetting, telling lies, speaking to and being friendly with local children, and not keeping up with chores, particularly farm work. Four (4) female witnesses believed that they were physically abused both as a means of coercion and ensuring silence about sexual abuse.