NEW ZEALAND
Stuff
December 11, 2020
By Morgane Solignac
A Blenheim woman who was told the sexual harassment she suffered at the hands of a minister was “pretty low” has called for an independent body to handle abuse claims in New Zealand.
Jacinda Thompson told the Royal Commission, in Auckland, this week about her 15-year battle for redress after being abused by Anglican minister Reverend Michael Van Wijk.
Thompson had turned to Van Wijk, and the Church of the Nativity in Blenheim, in 2005 for support after the death of a child.
Thompson last month applied to the Human Rights Review Tribunal to have her name suppression lifted ahead of giving evidence to the commission’s Abuse in Care Inquiry on Monday.
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