Historical abuse suffered at the hands of some fellow students and staff at Dilworth School have been outlined to the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care.
Neil Harding, who is 55, went to the Anglican boarding school in Auckland in 1977.
A number of men are before the courts charged with indecent assault relating to historical abuse at the school.
Harding was 11-years-old when he started at Dilworth.
He describes it has a harsh military-style establishment that brutally punished those who did not conform immediately to the Dilworth way.
It was brutal and I saw quite quickly there was injustice. There was all sorts of stuff going on that was a real shock to me.
Harding said the boys were not treated as individuals and were often referred to by just a number.
He said the culture in his dormitory was a free for all.
The older kids did just what they wanted to the younger kids and I just don’t think we were supervised adequately I would say. The degree of supervision allowed the boys to do what they did. It was a consequence of whatever supervision was or wasn’t.
A lot of the violence was student-on-student, he said.
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