SBS, February 5, 2014.
Queensland police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were
being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid
1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says. Retired assistant
commissioner David Jefferies has told the Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he received information a Queensland
millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part of a pedophile
ring. …
ABC News, Emily Bourke, February 5, 2014.
The child abuse royal commission has been told about a paedophile ring that
operated in Queensland in the 1970s and that boys from the Salvation Army's
Alkira home were likely victims. A retired Queensland police officer has given
evidence that a wealthy businessman was involved with three other alleged
paedophiles who groomed and abused boys in the same neighbourhood as the
Salvation Army's Alkira boys home. The inquiry has also heard that that boys
were flown to Sydney where they were sexually exploited by a 'top chef' in the
city.
Transcript:
The Australian, Dan Box, February 5, 2014.
Queensland police were aware of allegations boys held in state care were
being flown to Sydney to be abused by a millionaire and a chef in the mid
1970s, a former assistant police commissioner says. But while police and the
state government believed a pedophile network was allegedly abusing boys in
Brisbane during 1975, including at least one boy from a Salvation Army home,
vulnerable children continued to be placed in the home, the Royal Commission
into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard. David Jefferies,
a former assistant commissioner of Queensland Police, said he had investigated
a number of alleged pedophiles said to be "grooming and offending against
various boys'', possibly including those from the Indooroopilly home. …
The Australian, Dan Box, February 5, 2014.
Salvation Army officers believed child victims of sex abuse were
"money-grabbing" when they started to come forward during the late
1990s to describe their treatment in boys' homes run by the Christian
organisation. … "There was this feeling that was expressed more by a sigh
or a look or maybe even a side word or two that these complaints couldn't have
been real and that they were just attempts at money-grabbing," she said.
The commission is investigating the widespread physical and sexual abuse of
children at four Salvation Army-run institutions in Queensland and NSW between
1957 and 1975. Ms Randall and her husband worked at one of these homes,
Indooroopilly in Brisbane, during the early '70s and did report mistreatment by
some of the staff, the commission heard.
Goulburn Post, Louise Thrower, February 5, 2014.
… Using the pseudonym, GH, a 52-year-old Canberra man told the Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was
sexually assaulted by a boy as a seven or eight-yearold at the Home. It
allegedly happened in the locker room as both were getting changed after band
practise. … “All of a sudden he started hugging me and said: ‘I am not going to
hurt you, just going to have cuddles.’” “At
first I did not think there was anything wrong with the hugs, but all of a
sudden I did not know what was going on and I knew that what he was doing was
not normal. …
Goulburn post, Louise Thrower, February 5, 2014.
Mark Stiles was almost lost for words when asked this week the effect that
years of alleged sexual abuse by Salvation Army officers had on his life. “Where
do I begin?” … “Mistrust. Everyday not knowing whether I said or did the right
things,” he said before breaking down. “Fear, anger, I suffer severe
hypertension and I’m on drugs to control that.” In a statement to the
Commission, Mr Stiles said the Salvation Army had taken away his ability to
interact with the community, “stolen my foundational life skills and caused me
to panic almost every day for over 40 years.” Mr Stiles, a Canberra electronics
technician was one of two former Gill Memorial Boys Home residents who gave
evidence to the Commission on Wednesday. The Salvation Army operated the home
on top of Auburn St from 1936 to 1980. …
The Guardian (UK), AAP, February 4, 2014.
… Retired assistant commissioner David Jefferies told the royal commission
into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that he received information
a Queensland millionaire, known as JA, flew boys to Sydney to be abused as part
of a paedophile ring. "This JA was certainly known as a millionaire and
had, I believe, a construction business, and we certainly had received
information about children actually going to his home," Jefferies said. "We
were aware that boys in state care and from some institutions had in fact been
flown to Sydney."
Newcastle Herald, AAP, February 4, 2014.
… Major Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall blew the whistle on extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a Queensland home for boys, said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling of abuse allegations. She was giving evidence at a royal commission hearing into how the Salvation Army Eastern Territory responded to allegations of child abuse at two homes in Queensland and two in NSW. … At the time, the young couple were shocked at what they saw - a regime under Captain Lawrence Wilson and then Captain John McIver in which children were brutalised. ...
The Guardian (UK), AAP, February 4, 2014.
The Salvation Army reacted with disbelief and suspected people were
money-grabbing when they began receiving complaints about abuse in their homes
for children, the royal commission into child abuse heard on Tuesday. Major
Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall blew the whistle on
extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a Queensland home for boys,
said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling of abuse allegations. …
Ipswich Advertiser, Jessica Grewal, February 4, 2014.
A missing boy, who ran away from a Salvation Army children's home, fell into
the hands of a pedophile ring and likely ended up "at the bottom of Sydney
Harbour" the royal commission heard. In some of the most chilling evidence
before the inquiry into abuse at four of the army's boys homes, Salvation Army
Major Cliff Randall recalled a time in the '70s when a regular runaway from the
Indooroopilly home went missing and never returned. The commission heard he and
his wife Marina had been outraged by the treatment of children at the
Indooroopilly home and were trying to get management to step in when a boy
returned from a long stint away and confided in him. …
ABC Brisbane, Gabrielle Burke, February 4, 2014.
Some hair-raising evidence has been given at the Royal Commission hearing in
Sydney looking at Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. ABC reporter
Tom Oriti spoke to Steve Austin about what survivors have reported took place
at the Alkira Salvation Army home in Indooroopilly in the 1960's and 1970's.
9 News, February 4, 2014.
… Retired Salvation Army Major Clifford Randall detailed the horrific
allegations to a royal commission into the alleged sexual against young boys
living in a foster home run by the charity in the 1975. Mr Randall, who did not
name the businessman, said the boys were then sexually abused, before being
flown to the home of a top Sydney chef who assaulted them again. …
ABC News, Thomas Oriti, February 4, 2014.
… The Alkira Salvation Army Home for Boys at Indooroopilly in Queensland is
one of four homes being examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Marina Randall and her husband Cliff worked as
"house parents" in the home between 1973 and 1975. … "It just
looked as if it had been left in a hurry. Things weren't the way you might
normally expect if it had been a relaxed leaving," she said.
The Australian, AAP February 4, 2014.
The Salvation Army reacted with disbelief and suspected people were
money-grabbing when they began receiving complaints about abuse in their homes
for children. Major Marina Randall, who with her husband Major Clifford Randall
blew the whistle on extreme abuse by two Salvation Army managers at a
Queensland home for boys, said there was a naivety in 1999 about the handling
of abuse allegations. … The then young couple were shocked at what they
witnessed - a regime under Captain Lawrence Wilson and then Captain John McIver
in which children were brutalised.
The Australian, Dan Box, February 4, 2014.
Boys living in a Salvation Army-run children's home in Brisbane were flown
to Sydney by a millionaire hardware store owner to be sexually abused, with at
least one victim who never returned possibly being murdered. Senior officers at
the Indooroopilly boys' home also moved an alleged child-rapist to NSW,
"otherwise he would have ended up in jail", the Royal Commission into
Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard. …
Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Bibby, February 4, 2014.
Boys living at a Queensland Salvation Army home in the 1970s were allegedly
enticed into a paedophile ring run by a wealthy businessman who sexually abused
them, and then flew them to the Sydney home of a ''top chef'' who assaulted
them again, the royal commission has heard. One of the boys allegedly never
came back. One of his friends reportedly said he had ended up ''at the bottom
of Sydney Harbour''.The revelations came from a now-retired Salvation Army
officer who blew the whistle on the physical and sexual abuse inflicted on boys
at the Indooroopilly boys home in Brisbane where he worked as a ''house
parent'' from 1972 to 1975. … The whistleblower, Major Clifford Randall, told
the hearing boys would abscond from the home for days at a time and return with
stories of participating in a child abuse racket in Brisbane and in Paddington
in Sydney.
ABC News, Conor Duffy, February 3, 2014.
Lewis Blayse championed the case of people abused at Salvation Army homes
but has now passed away. Before his death, he gave 7.30 an interview in which
he spoke of his hopes for the Royal Commission in to institutional abuse and
for the children of the future.
Transcript …
The Guardian (UK), Australian Associated Press, February 3, 2014.
… Retired Salvation Army major Clifford Randall said he saw Captain John
McIver, the then manager of Alkira, the home for boys at Indooroopilly,
dislocate a boy's shoulder when the boy resisted being hit with a strap between
his legs and was thrown against a brick wall. Randall resumed his evidence at a
royal commission into child sexual abuse hearing in Sydney on Tuesday. He said
he reported the incident to a Jan Doyle, a senior social worker with the
Department of Children's Services. Randall and his wife, Marina, who is also a
major in the Salvation Army, were at the Alkira home as houseparents from 1973
to 1975. …
ABC News, Thomas Oriti and Emily Bourke, February 3, 2014.
Two Salvation Army whistleblowers were dismissed from their positions at a
home in Queensland after they reported an alleged instance of abuse, a royal
commission has heard. … Whistleblower Cliff Randall expressed concern about
violence towards boys in the Alkira Salvation Army home at Indooroopilly in
1975. … The commission was told Maor Randall and his wife Marina were suddenly
dismissed from their positions when they complained about an incident involving
Major John McIver.
Newcastle Herald, February 3, 2014.
BOYS at a Sydney home run by the Salvation Army would be taken to private
homes after church and sexually abused, an inquiry has been told. Kevin
Marshall, who was a resident at the Bexley Boys Home for eight years from 1966,
has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that "private
soldiers" would provide a meal after services in their homes and sometimes
molest the boys. … Sexual assaults were carried out by older boys and by
officers, he said, describing a "bear pit" mentality in the boys'
dormitories. …
Telegraph, February 3, 2014.
NSW police beat boys who ran away from a Salvation Army home where they were
being abused, a hearing in Sydney has been told. Mark Stiles told the Royal
Commission into child sexual abuse that he was 12 when he was sexually abused
at the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn, NSW, by Captain Russell Walker. … He
said the abuse happened four times a week over the 14-month period he was at
Gill, in 1971 and 1972. He was too scared to tell anyone, the commission heard.
…
SBS AAP, February 3, 2014.
The royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard there was no emotional support for children at a Salvation Army home in Sydney. Boys at a Sydney home run by the Salvation Army would be taken to private homes after church and sexually abused, an inquiry has been told. Kevin Marshall, who was a resident at the Bexley Boys Home for eight years from 1966, has told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that "private soldiers" would provide a meal after services in their homes and sometimes molest the boys. Mr Marshall said he was caned and sexually assaulted at Bexley. Sexual assaults were carried out by older boys and by officers, he said describing a "bear pit" mentality in the boys' dormitories. ...
The Guardian (UK), Australian Associated Press, February 2, 2014.
A Salvation Army worker who blew the whistle on a manager meting out extreme
punishment to boys in a Queensland home was fired, an inquiry has been told. Retired
Salvation Army Major Clifford Randall told the royal commission into child
sexual abuse that in 1975, while a house parent at Alkira, a boys' home at
Indooroopilly in Queensland, he saw one boy's shoulder become dislocated during
a beating. The manager of the home, Captain John McIver, was whipping a
12-year-old boy with a strap, when the boy put his hand back and McIver broke a
cufflink, Randall said. …
AUSTRALIA
ABC - Four Corners, January 31, 2014.
[with complete video of the program]
In this 2003 episode, Four Corners looks at the kids society didn't want,
orphaned or wrenched from broken families, then shunted off to
"homes".
Transcript
They were the kids society didn't want... orphaned or wrenched from broken
families, then shunted off to loveless places called - without irony -
"homes".
Over decades, tens of thousands of Australian children were sent to state
and charitable institutions to be raised by complete strangers.
Some kids were identified by numbers, not by their names. Chores were
numbingly routine. Discipline was harsh at best. Many endured extreme cruelty -
emotional, physical and sexual.
ABC - Four Corners
[rebroardcast video]
January 31, 2014.
[transcript] 2003
Four Corners explores how the childhood experience of "the homies"
continues to intensely affect their lives.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT, REPORTER: Scattered around Australia are crumbling
structures that once housed the children society didn't want. These were
children's homes, run by the most respectable bodies in the land - States,
charities, churches, the Salvation Army. But for many older Australians, the
memories are intensely painful.
TRISH PASCOE: The bitter, lonely years.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Why do you call it that?
TRISH PASCOE: Because they were bitter and lonely. That's the only thing I
can use to describe it.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Some homes were well-run. In others, abuse turned
children into angry, sometimes criminal, adults.
MAN IN SHADOW: To be truthful, I cannot look at a 13- or 14-year-old and not
think, "I wouldn't mind that".
BEVERLEY FITZGERALD, PRESIDENT, QLD CHILDREN SERVICES TRIBUNAL: Its
repercussions are enormous and they ripple out to every facet of a person's
life, and we have to start looking at that.
JOHN DALZIEL, THE SALVATION ARMY: That trust has been betrayed and to the
Australian public now, I apologise.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: Tonight on Four Corners, the secret history of the
extraordinary cruelty inflicted on children in care.
NEWSREEL: The Salvation Army is a strong supporter of the Scouting movement
as a means of building healthy bodies and minds - ideals that are carried
through to their schools for children from broken homes. For these youngsters,
school is home.
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, tens of thousands of boys
and girls from broken homes were dispatched to institutions around Australia.
(PHOTOGRAPH LABELLED 'INDOOROOPILLY')
QUENTIN McDERMOTT: The damage some homes caused is still there in the lives
of middle-aged Australians like Lewis Blayse.
LEWIS BLAYSE: It was out in the middle of nowhere, which is where most of
these places were - out in the middle of nowhere.
Illawarra Mercury, Annette Blackwell, February 1, 2014.
The Salvation Army has a lot of questions to answer.
For almost three decades there were alleged rapes, floggings and punishments
at their Dickensian boys' homes in NSW and Queensland.
The evidence has been exposed at the royal commission into child sexual
abuse.
The stories are so horrific that some news operations have steered clear of
publishing full details of the acts of some Salvation Army officers, in the
1950s, '60s and '70s.
The Salvation Army is not challenging evidence by the string of witnesses -
former residents of four homes being examined in detail by the commission.
It is not the first time Australians have heard these horror stories. In
1999 the Queensland Forde commission looked into the Indooroopilly home and the
Riverview Training Farm in Queensland, both of which are on the commission's
list.
The Australian, Dan Box, February 01, 2014
A Salvation Army major suspended this week "in light of evidence
tendered to the royal commission" is alleged in reports dating back to
1974 to have sexually and physically abused children.
Several years before the current commission hearing, the army paid
compensation to two men who alleged they were sexually abused by Major John
McIver, who has denied these claims.
Confidential correspondence tendered to the Royal Commission into
Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse shows Mr McIver criticising the
army's response to allegations of child abuse. "Every Tom, Dick and Harry
who was ever unloved by his mother and ended up in an Army institution now
feels emboldened to shift the blame because he/she thinks there might be money
in it," Mr McIver wrote.
The 2009 letter, sent after the Salvation Army received two separate
allegations of sexual assault, concludes: "I have a rather satisfying and
enjoyable life to lead and you won't want to be troubled by me making any
premature responses."
The commission is investigating the alleged abuse of dozens of children by
five Salvation Army officers at homes in Queensland and NSW between 1957 and
1975.
ABC – PM, Emily Bourke, January 30, 2014.
MARK COLVIN: As if the harrowing accounts of routine sexual and extreme
physical abuse at the Salvation Army boys homes weren't bad enough, the Royal
Commission into child sexual abuse today heard that boys at the Bexley home in
Sydney's south were 'rented out' to strangers who sexually abused them.
Today, the public hearing heard serious allegations that a 'network of
paedophiles', including women, were able to get to boys in their dormitory and
take boys to their private homes in the 1970s.
The inquiry has also heard that police investigations in the 1990s came to
nothing - and that one alleged offender, who was a Salvation Army captain, is
still alive.
Emily Bourke has the story - and a warning that some of the material in this
report is distressing.
EMILY BOURKE: The Salvation Army's home for boys at Bexley in Sydney's south
operated from 1915 to 1979. It took in boys who were abandoned or relinquished
by their families, but care and comfort were rare.
Today, the Royal Commission was told that the perpetrators of child sexual
abuse were inside and outside the home at Bexley.
The manager of the Bexley home in the early 70s was captain Lawrence Wilson.
He's been described as the Salvation Army's 'most serious offender'.
ABC News, Antonette Collins, January 30, 2014.
The royal commission into child abuse has heard more horrifying details of
abuse suffered by those in the care of the Salvation Army. Several former
residents gave evidence of brutal assaults at a Queensland home.
* Boys 'were assaulted in showers and were too afraid to complain'
* Victim recalls how elder boys would rape younger residents
* One 'violent officer' would punch boys as young as four years old
SALVATION Army officers fondled boys' penises while they were in the shower,
frequently assaulted them and did nothing when told one of the boys in their
care was raped, the royal commission into child sex abuse heard yesterday.
Speaking at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child
Sexual Abuse, one man - identified only as Mr F P - said he was regularly
subjected to sexual abuse and sadistic punishment by officers who were supposed
to be caring for him.
He told the inquest one of the officers, Lieutenant Spratt, approached him
and other boys staying at the charity's homes while they were naked in the
showers.
"He touched my backside and I moved away because of what other boys
told me about him," he said.
"I saw him touch other boys too. I saw him touch a boy's penis in the
shower for about a minute or two. It wasn't a brush, he was fondling him.
AUSTRALIA
The Australian, Dan Box, January 30, 2014.
A Queensland man raped and locked in a cage for weeks at a time by a
Salvation Army officer was subsequently told to sign documents waiving his
right to sue, despite the organisation knowing he could not read.
The man, who cannot be named, yesterday told the Royal Commission into
Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was about 14 years old
when he was abused at the Salvation Army-run Riverview boys home, near
Brisbane.
Decades later, in 2011, the organisation offered him $70,000, saying
"It's a gift from us to you", the commission heard.
He later received a deed of release by post and was told to sign and return
the papers, despite having previously told the Salvation Army he could not
read.
This document, produced during yesterday's hearing, now includes the signature
of a witness, Narelle Matthews, despite the abuse victim saying, "I was
alone when I signed that document . . . I do not know anyone called that.
ABC News, Thomas Oriti, January 30, 2014.
[w/ audio report and video report]
… Wally McLeod has told the commission about his time at the Alkira
Salvation Army Home for Boys at Indooroopilly in Queensland. … Over the next
two weeks, the commission will also focus on cases at the Riverview Training
Farm in Queensland, the Bexley Boys Home in Sydney and the Gill Memorial Home
at Goulburn in southern New South Wales. …
Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Bibby, January 30, 2014.
Newcastle Herald, Joanne McCarthy January 29, 2014.
Graham Rundle was seven when he was first raped at a Salvation Army boys'
home in South Australia and placed in a "lock-up", 18 when he first
tried to commit suicide, 48 when he turned to the Salvos for justice, and 58
when he comprehensively beat them. … "I was repeatedly raped as a child in
the 1960s but they abused me again in a different way when I reported it as an
adult, and they didn't have to do that. "I want to give evidence in
public. I want to be named. I want people to know what the bastards were like
then, and what they're like now. They did everything in their power to get rid
of me." …
Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Bibby, January 29, 2014.
Raymond Carlile's little brother was so hungry he had started eating grass. …
''They kept a load of raw potatoes under the building and we used to go under
there and steal them when we were hungry,'' Mr Carlile, now in his 70s, told
the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on
Tuesday. … In his opening address, counsel assisting the commission, Simeon
Beckett, set out horrific allegations of brutal sexual and physical abuse in
which boys aged 6 to 17 were raped and forced to have sex with each other under
threat of extreme physical violence that included being flogged, beaten and
locked up in cages for up to nine days at a time. ...
International Business Times, Reissa Su, January 29, 2014.
The victims of child abuse in Salvation Army homes spoke about their
experiences in the first public hearing in Sydney before the Royal Commission
into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for 2014. On Jan 28, the
commission began its fifth inquiry into the case.
Abuse victims claimed young boys were kept in a cage for days and raped in
Salvation Army homes during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. According to revelations in
the public hearing, Salvation Army leaders failed to impose discipline or
remove those who committed abuses permanently. Perpetrators were simply
transferred to other homes where abuses continue.
Mr Beckett said the focus of the hearing would be the response of the
Salvation Army and government agencies to charges of child sex abuse inside the
homes for boys located in Indooroopilly, Riverview Training Farm in Queensland,
Bexley Boys home in North Bexley and the Gill Memorial Home in Golbourn.
The Royal Commission will focus on the alleged abuse on young boys aged 6 to
17 years old by Salvation Army officers Russell Walker, Laurence Wilson, Victor
Bennett, Donald Schultz and John McIver.
The Australian, Dan Box, January 29, 2014.
Orphaned and abandoned children were subjected to public "punishment
parades" and made to fight each other by Salvation Army officers who
appeared to enjoy the spectacle, an inquiry has heard.
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to
Child Sexual Abuse, one former resident of the Riverview boys' home near
Brisbane described being publicly caned until "I felt blood running down
the back of my legs".
Such beatings were frequent and held in full sight of other boys and Salvation
Army staff, the commission heard, with the boys told to strip from the waist
down and bend over before being flogged.
The man, who cannot be named, also told the commission he was repeatedly
forced to fight other boys bare-fisted "for their enjoyment ... these
officers they didn't have much to do, they thought we'll get the boys out and
get them to beat the crap out of each other."
Whitsunday Times, Jessica Grewal, January 29, 2014.
A tormented retiree, who was subjected to unimaginable childhood abuse at a
Riverview boy's home, has unloaded decades of grief at a public hearing in
Sydney.
Giving evidence before the royal commission into Institutional Responses
into to Child Sex Abuse, Raymond Carlile wept as he recalled children being
raped and beaten until they bled under the watch of the Salvation Army.
The 67-year-old, who in 2010 received a $100,000 in compensation from the
Salvation Army, told the commission he was eight when he was sent to the home
which later became known as the Endeavour Training Farm.
For three hours, Mr Carlile struggled through his accounts of the persistent
sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a man known as Lieutenant Lawrence
Wilson.
He told the commission Lt Wilson had said "I want you, you dirty little
thing", the night he "grabbed" him from his bed, told him to get
undressed and raped him.
The Daily Telegraph, Nathan Klein, January 29, 2014.
* Boys 'were assaulted in showers and were too afraid to complain'
* Victim recalls how elder boys would rape younger residents
* One 'violent officer' would punch boys as young as four years old
SALVATION Army officers fondled boys' penises while they were in the shower,
assaulted them frequently and did nothing when told one of the boys in their
care was raped, an inquest heard today.
Speaking at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child
Sexual Abuse, one man - identified to the public inquest only as Mr F P - said
he was regularly subjected to sexual abuse and sadistic punishment by officers
who were supposed to be caring for him.
He told the inquiry one of the officers, Lieutenant Spratt, approached him
and other boys staying at the Salvation Army homes while they were naked in the
showers.
Geelong Advertiser, Annette Blackwell AAP, January 29, 2014.
A boy who told a Salvation Army officer he had been sexually abused by
another boy was later raped by the officer, an inquiry has been told.
A man, identified as ES, said he ran away several times from a Salvation
Army Training Farm at Riverview in Queensland when he was a teenager but was
always brought back, either by the farm manager, Captain Victor Bennett or
police.
Mr Bennett who has since died, is one of five officers against whom the
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard
numerous allegations.
The commission is holding a public hearing in Sydney into what happened at
four homes run by the Salvos in NSW and Queensland in the 60s and 70s.
ES said on Wednesday he was locked in a cage on the veranda at Riverview -
some times for weeks.
Coolum News, Jessica Grewal, January 29, 2014.
Boys living at a Riverview farm were locked in a prison-like cell for days
at a time as one of many sadistic punishments dealt out by a rapist Salvation
Army captain, the royal commission has heard.
During day two of the hearing into the Salvation Army's treatment of child
abuse victims at the home near Ipswich, five former Riverview residents told of
the torment they were subjected to while the late Major Victor Bennett was in
command in the late 60s and 70s.
One victim, who can only be referred to as ES, told the commission Major
Bennett had once performed an enema like procedure on him with a garden hose to
teach him a lesson.
He said he had tried to run away and catch a nearby ferry when Major Bennett
and some of the older boys caught up with him.
ABC – PM, Emily Bourke, January 29, 2014.
MARK COLVIN: The Child Abuse Royal Commission has heard evidence about how a
vicious bullying culture at Salvation Army boys' homes was passed from adults
to children: so younger children were assaulted by older boys as well as those
in charge.
Several former residents have told how they were sexually assaulted but were
too ashamed or too afraid to speak out because they weren't believed - or
worse, they were physically and sexually abused by Salvation Army officers.
The inquiry also heard that one boy was tethered to a brick, thrown into a
pool and was then forced under the water by a Salvation Army captain. Another
boy was caged in a cell on a veranda for weeks at a time.
And a warning: some of the detail and language contained in this story may
be distressing.
Emily Bourke reports.
EMILY BOURKE: At the Salvation Army boys' homes in Indooroopilly and
Riverview, children were referred to by number, not name.
WALLY MCLEOD: My number was 14 at Indooroopilly, and 36 at Riverview.
EMILY BOURKE: Wally McLeod was among the boys whose clothes, shoes, and
personal things were confiscated.
Newcastle Herald, January 29, 2014.
Boys as young as four were punched and others were subjected to public
floggings at two Salvation Army homes in Queensland, an inquiry has been told.
Wally McLeod, a resident at Indooroopilly Boys Home and Riverview Training
Farm from 1960 to 1966, told the national royal commission into child sexual
abuse he saw Captain Victor Bennett grab children as young as four and punch
them.
This happened at the Indooroopilly home, later named Alkira, when Mr McLeod
was sent there, aged 12, he said yesterday, the second day of a public hearing
in Sydney.
The commission is examining the responses of the Eastern Territory of the
Salvation Army and relevant government agencies to child abuse at four homes –
the two in Queensland and two in NSW.
Mr McLeod said the children ‘‘cried and screamed’’ when he grabbed them by
their shirts and struck them on the head and shoulders.
Australian Times (UK), January 29, 2014.
There “was fear all the time” around Salvation Army officers, a witness has
told a royal commission.
“A lot of you people don’t seem to understand, you did not open your mouth
around Salvation Army officers because you did not know what you were going to
get.”
That was the response of a witness identified as FP when pressed at an
inquiry into child sexual abuse about whether he had complained of ill
treatment to state welfare officers who regularly visited the Salvation Army
Training Farm at Riverview in Queensland in the 1960s.
FP’s evidence on Wednesday follows that of other witnesses who have told of
frequent floggings and sexual abuse both by Salvo officers and older boys at
the home.
My Daily News, Jessica Grewal, January 29, 2014.
A tormented retiree, who was subjected to unimaginable childhood abuse at a
Riverview boy's home, has unloaded decades of grief at a public hearing in
Sydney.
Giving evidence before the royal commission into Institutional Responses
into to Child Sex Abuse, Raymond Carlile wept as he recalled children being
raped and beaten until they bled under the watch of the Salvation Army.
The 67-year-old, who in 2010 received a $100,000 in compensation from the
Salvation Army, told the commission he was eight when he was sent to the home
which later became known as the Endeavour Training Farm.
For three hours, Mr Carlile struggled through his accounts of the persistent
sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a man known as Lieutenant Lawrence
Wilson.
He told the commission Lt Wilson had said "I want you, you dirty little
thing", the night he "grabbed" him from his bed, told him to get
undressed and raped him.
The Raw Story, Agence France-Presse, January 28, 2014
Children were sodomised with a garden hose, locked in outdoor cages and
savagely beaten by Salvation Army majors in graphic cases of abuse detailed
Tuesday to an Australian inquiry.
A Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in Australia began hearing
evidence into allegations of abuse at four Salvation Army homes for children
between 1966 and 1977, which counsel assisting the inquiry Simeon Beckett
warned would be “shocking to many”.
“The abuse that is to be detailed before the Royal Commission in the course
of this case study is likely to be disturbing and at the severe end of sexual
abuse,” he said in his opening address.
The investigative commission was established by former prime minister Julia
Gillard in response to a series of child sex abuse scandals involving
paedophile priests, though she insisted the probe would be much broader than
the Catholic Church.
The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has heard young boys were
raped, beaten and locked in a cage as part of a brutal regime at Salvation Army
boys’ homes.
7 News, Chris Maher, January 28, 2014.
The Royal Commission into institutional sexual abuse has begun a public hearing into the Salvation Army.
7 News, ABC, Emily Bourke And Thomas Oriti, January 28, 2014.
... This morning the commission began its fifth inquiry, this
time examining
cases of abuse at four boys' homes operated by the prominent
charity. Some of the evidence presented today shocked even some
survivors and their
advocates, including the caging of children, punishment parades, and
appalling
Dickensian conditions. ...
Weekly Times, Annette Blackwell, January 28, 2014.
A Salvation Army officer in Sydney would send boys who were in care to the
homes of adults to be sexually assaulted, an inquiry has been told. The
officer, Captain Lawrence Wilson, was moved by the Salvation Army between four
boys' homes in Queensland and NSW between the late 1950s and 1977. The Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse began its
investigation at a public hearing in Sydney on Tuesday into what happened at
those homes - the Alkira Home for Boys at Indooroopilly and the Endeavour
Training Farm at Riverview, both in Queensland, as well as the Bexley Boys Home
in Sydney and the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn, NSW. All the homes have since
closed. Mr Wilson, who died in 2008, began his career in 1956 when he was
posted as an assistant officer to the Riverview farm. ...