Author(s): Ann Thompson

Biography/Memoir

Conceived out of wedlock in 1941, Ann was just two months old when she was placed in the care of a Catholic orphanage in Christchurch, New Zealand. From the beginning, she was taught her mother was sinful and that she would be too unless the devil was beaten from her soul. She was physically and sexually abused by religious and lay staff at the orphanage from an early age and was forced to work long hours on the orphanage farm and later in the laundries. In 1997, when Ann watched a Prime Television documentary exposing the decades of abuse by the Good Shepherd nuns at the Christchurch orphanage, she realised hers wasn't the only lost childhood. Ann's battle to get authorities within the Catholic Church to accept responsibility for the past institutionalised abuse of children and young people in its care is entering its eleventh year. She is committed to communicating truthfully and openly about the abuse inflicted on her, and its ongoing consequences, until the church acknowledges culpability and admits - unconditionally - that there was wrongdoing. First published June 2009.