New Zealand’s prime minister on Tuesday delivered a historic apology to victims abused in state care, acknowledging the “unimaginable pain” suffered within children’s homes and psychiatric hospitals.

Some 200,000 vulnerable New Zealanders were abused in state care over decades, according to a recent public inquiry that described its findings as an “unthinkable national catastrophe”.

Children were sexually abused by church carers, mothers were forced to give up kids for adoption, and troublesome patients were strapped to beds for seizure-inducing electroconvulsive therapy.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday apologised on behalf of successive governments that turned a blind eye to such harrowing reports.

“I am sorry you were not believed when you came forward to report your abuse,” he said in an address delivered to parliament.

“Some of you may feel my words count for little after so long and so much hurt.

“But I hope that today, with this apology and the acknowledgement of your burden, it becomes a little lighter for some of you.”

Luxon singled out the now-notorious Lake Alice psychiatric hospital in rural New Zealand, where patients recalled being unwittingly sterilised, used for unethical medical experiments, and punished with electric shocks.

“To those of you who were tortured at Lake Alice — young, alone, and subjected to unimaginable pain — I am deeply sorry.”

Many victims reported lingering trauma that has fuelled addiction and other problems.

The report found that some of the abuse was “overlaid with racism” targeting Indigenous Maori.

The inquiry was set up in 2018 and has made 233 recommendations that Luxon’s government has promised to consider.