A former Christ’s College student sexually assaulted and abused by other students in the 1970s says it was “systematic deliberate abuse” designed to shame him.
Jim Goodwin attended the Christchurch school as a boarder from 1970 to 1974 and told the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in Auckland on Monday about the assault by other students that left him fearing for his life.
He said it happened as part of a ritual at the school known as hauling. Senior students would punish more junior pupils if they felt they had been disrespected.
Goodwin said he accidentally bumped into a senior student entering the lunch hall when he was in fifth form (year 11). He was told he was going to be “hauled” and taken to the student study.