[2] Marylands opened on 21 August 1955 in the presence of 5000 people[3] including Prime Minister Sidney Holland,[4] the mayor of Christchurch, Mr. R. M. McFarlane and several high-ranking members of the Catholic Church.
Residents are shown doing activities including fruit picking, cleaning, looking after pets, playing on playground equipment and reading in the library.
[14] On 26 October 1972, 'Marylands Special School' was featured in a segment of a BCNZ current affairs television programme called Contact.
[20] The school is now known as HRC Te Otu Mātua / Halswell Residential Centre, described on its website as 'an intervention for students with intellectual difficulties and complex behaviours'.
These waters were not healthy, and several vulnerable young people left this land with painful memories of abuse endured during their time here.
The whānau of te Otu Mātua acknowledges the support of several cultural and spiritual leaders from our community who have blessed our land and buildings with cleansing and healing waters at various times throughout our history.
She found that as well as failing to appropriately care for and educate the boys, 'the prolific abuse and secrecy [at Marylands] created a deeply-warped environment, and the boundaries of acceptable behaviour were completely unclear'.
[25] Staff at the school were involved in 118 sex abuse allegations dating back from the 1970s, with about eighty former students receiving a total payout for compensation of about $5 million.
[27][28] In 1984, after the Brothers of St John of God left Marylands, the Bishop of Christchurch invited them to establish a youth ministry to support vulnerable young people.
Bernard McGrath, one of the Order's most prolific child rapists was put in charge of operations, despite knowledge of his offending against children as early as 1977.
[31] In 2009 TV One screened an episode of Real Crime: Beyond the Darklands in which clinical psychologist Nigel Latta talked to McGrath's victims and evaluated his motivations and likelihood to re-offend.
[citation needed] In November 2012, 252 new charges were laid in New South Wales against McGrath alleging that he repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese over several decades.
[33][34] One accuser, Donald Daniel Ku, would testify before the Commission in February 2022, claiming McGrath sexually abused him in 1963 while he was a student at Marylands School and also put him in a coffin containing a dead body.
[35] In 2008 Brother Roger Maloney, who also worked at Marylands School, was found guilty of seven sex abuse charges and was acquitted of a further 16.
[45] St John of God has paid compensation to many of Lebler's victims, often demanding the victim signs a Non Disclosure Agreement to ensure their silence[46] Marylands School along with two other institutions run by the Order of St John of God was subject to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, which commenced its investigation in 2018.
In August 2023, the Royal Commission published its interim report which focused on the Order of St John's institutions for disabled and vulnerable children including Maryland School.
The report documented several cases of depravity, sexual, physical and spiritual abuse at these institutions, with Marylands School and Hebron Trust described as "hell on earth."