When Barbara was 18, she was forced to marry the son of a priest who raped her.
Barbara, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s identity, has filed a complaint with the Royal Commission of Inquiry Abuse in Healthcare about how the priest raped her and forced her to marry his secret son, who later sexually abused their children and grandchild.
It was 1966 when Barbara was forced to marry a 33-year-old man, who she later learned was the son of… Father George “Doc” Harrison, then pastor in Hokitika who she says pushed her into marriage with the support of a nun who was a head teacher at her school.
“The effects of this still have a devastating impact on my life and that of my children and grandchildren,” she said.
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Barbara was born and raised in Hokitika in a very Catholic large family whose parents followed the wishes of the Church. Harrison had presided over her parents’ wedding.
She said that before Harrison was ordained, he fathered a son in Hokitika by an unmarried woman.
The son James, also not his real name, was born in 1933 and raised by his grandparents.
When Barbara was 15 years old, Harrison, with the support of a nun, began talking to Barbara after class and suggested that she marry James*. She said the nun had told her to marry and submit to her husband.
She said she was raped by James a week after her 16th birthday.
She told her mother and begged for permission to go to Christchurch for work, but her mother spoke to Harrison who told her that if she had had sex, she should marry James.
She arranged to run away to her sister’s house, but Harrison found out two days before the wedding and ordered her to meet him at the rectory for “wedding lessons.”
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Father George William ‘Doc’ Harrison has come out as a ‘mega abuser’ for his crimes while he was a Catholic priest.
“Doc raped me during that meeting. On the couch in the front room of the rectory. He raped me two days before the wedding to stop my escape. This sent me in a zombie like state, shocked. I sank into a kind of oblivion,” she said.
He performed at the wedding.
“I was pressured into a forced marriage as if I had no value myself as a girl… I was treated like an object to be given away.”
She thinks she could have escaped the wedding if she hadn’t been raped.
“I don’t think I ever recovered from that rape and its effects. Forced marriage stole my life from me and forced me to live under the control of a man I despised.
“I planned to become a nurse and travel the world. I was tied up to suppress my emotions and intellect.
“Unbeknownst to me, a pedophile was placed in my life.”
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Barbara had three children, unaware that her husband was a pedophile who had been abused by his own father.
Barbara endured an unhappy marriage, but had three children whom she loved.
She worked nights for a few years and recently discovered that her husband had been abusing her children during that time.
She said that when one of her children became ill, she questioned James about his family’s medical history – only then did he tell her Harrison was his father.
After Harrison died in 1987 and it became public knowledge that he had abused children, she asked James and he told her that he had also been sexually abused by Harrison, but said it was a normal relationship between a father and son.
“From that time on I was concerned enough to never leave him alone with my children and I asked him to leave when I became more and more concerned.”
In 2001, she discovered that James had molested her granddaughter, complained to the police and he was jailed.
“My granddaughter has really suffered mentally and physically and is still suffering terribly from this abuse.”
Barbara buried the trauma of the forced marriage and rape until she saw a television advertisement for the Royal Commission and memories flooded back. She made a statement and then filed a complaint with the church about the forced marriage.
She did not disclose the rape until she met Bishop Paul Martin in 2019.
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Barbara says the Church has not acted on her complaints against Father “Doc” Harrison (center photo, November 1954).
He referred her complaint to the National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS), which appointed an investigator. She said the researcher did not allow her to get support from her when he contacted her without prior appointment. He also told her about his own marital situation and that he wanted to write a book about her experiences. He did not interview the nun, who died after completing his investigation.
Bishop Martin then wrote to Barbara that her complaint had not been accepted.
His letter states that the complaint has been taken very seriously and investigated by the complaints committee, but that it “cannot be proven with the required standard of evidence”.
He said the church was willing to continue to pay for counseling – Barbara said most of her counseling was paid for by ACC.
The investigative report states that the NOPS investigator was tasked with investigating only the rape and not whether Harrison was James’ father or the forced marriage.
Bishop Martin wondered why Barbara had not included the sexual allegation in her original complaint and wondered if her disclosure of rape was a means of making money.
It said there were no witnesses to the rape, and no evidence that James was Harrison’s son. The investigator did not receive a copy of James’ birth certificate or do any DNA testing.
Barbara asked for a review of the decision, but a review, which looked only at the processes of the investigation, said the Church’s investigation had been conducted correctly.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
Survivors advocates Murray Heasley say the Catholic Church’s response to sexual abuse has been regrettable.
The reviewer, who specializes in tax litigation, said in a report that NOPS was right in not investigating the forced marriage because it did not involve sexual abuse or misconduct. .
“The forced marriage complaint is a disturbing one and one that seems to have caused the complainant suffering for much of her life… While I have concluded that the NOPS was right to conclude that even with the rape charge added, the complaint about forced marriage does not fall under [its remit], nevertheless, that decision of mine was not easy as a matter of legal analysis or pleasant to reach, as it precludes any way of providing a fair trial for the complainant’s fundamental complaint. I hope and trust that the forced marriage complaint will be thoroughly and comprehensively investigated,” it said.
Barbara said she wanted the church to investigate the forced marriage. She had asked the Sisters of Mercy in vain to investigate.
She said she was faced with a large legal bill after hiring a lawyer to ask the church to conduct a new investigation, conduct an independent assessment, and compensate her. The church has refused.
“I feel degraded and robbed of my dignity again by being told I’m lying. My story is unimportant to them, only their money matters. The priest has defiled me and now the church is repeating the process. The whole process has been extremely traumatizing and disturbing. I was diagnosed with PTSD. After I was told I was lying, I now have no story, no way to find justice… Recognition from the Church could have set me free.”
She said money couldn’t compensate her, but it could give her a sense of justice and lessen her feelings of indignation and anger. She has set up a social media group for Harrison’s survivors to report to.