AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND)
New Zealand Herald

December 1, 2020

By Isaac Davison

A mother who was raped by a Catholic priest says the church investigated the abuse initially moved him to a different school rather than punishing him.

She later complained to police, who twice decided against pressing charges before finally securing a conviction after a review.

Ann-Marie Shelley, now aged 64, appeared before a royal commission of inquiry in Auckland this morning, which is holding hearings on abuse in faith-based institutions.

She was left at Hutt Hospital after her birth in 1955 and placed for adoption through Catholic Social Services.

In a harrowing statement, Shelley described how she was neglected or abused at nearly every stage of her life – at the hands of her adoptive parents, at primary school, at a social welfare home, in an unmarried parents’ home, by a priest, and in a Red Cross…