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Sylvia's Story - continues

When will the other churches come to the party?  Why are they silent and letting the Catholics take all the heat?   Aged 17 I was groomed and assaulted by an Anglican church official. Nearly 14 years after I first complained, they are still telling me to go away. In 1997, they said I had to withdraw my complaint from the Police before they would investigate.  Then they said "he didn't do it" and told me to go away.  Then after continued pressure, they appointed a barrister who said my complaint was substantiated.  Then they fired the perpetrator and told me to go away. Although they magnanimously paid for some counselling, they have never once apologised or taken responsibility for the destruction of my childhood.  They say at 17 I should have known better.  But I had only just turned 17 and was a school leaver.  I had never even seen a male unclothed before he exposed himself to me in the cathedral organ loft. I am still waiting for any form of justice. This is despite a memo obtained from the Diocesan office that detailed his molestation of a 12 year old in the 1950s!

I can almost promise votes for anyone who publicly acknowledges the Forgotten Australians and the issue of child abuse. Versions of our story are repeated for 500,000 Australians.  Why don't we hear from them all, and their families?  Because unlike our indigenous sisters and brothers, we rarely enjoy extended family networks.  In fact, because of the lack of understanding shown to our family, neither of my siblings speaks to me any more, and they also cheated me out of some of my inheritance.  The reason? I did not use the advantages my upbringing gave me.  Even my own sisters do not understand.  How can anyone else?  Every day I come into contact with welfare and health 'professionals' who know nothing at all about our issues. 

The first political party to seriously address the awful problem of child abuse in this state will be swept into power.  That means to address the fact that three Supreme Court judges and a senior political figure belong to the Boy Lovers And Zucchini Eaters club [A Report by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority, November 1995] and were photographed by the Federal Police leaving BLAZE's monthly meeting at Dirty Dicks nightclub.  In an incident ‘reported’ to have occurred in about August, 1988, two Federal police officers from Sydney came to Brisbane in order to investigate the making of a “snuff video” which allegedly portrayed a section of the Brisbane River in the background, as it was being filmed. 

This detail has been reported in the CJC’s August, 1988, Kimmins Report.

As part of this investigation, it has been reported that the two AFP officers carried out video surveillance of a Fortitude Valley nightclub.  It could have been in fact “Dirty Dicks” Theatre Restaurant, which is not situated at Fortitude Valley, but at Petrie Terrace, about 3-4 km away. 

It was reported that the occasion filmed at Dirty Dicks was a monthly meeting of BLAZE (Boy Lovers and Zucchini Eaters). Some high profile individuals were reportedly caught exiting the event, on the AFP surveillance video.

My abuser, Dr Robert Boughen OBE (and various other accolades) is closely involved with the Royal School of Church Music. A memo I acquired from the Callaghan/Briggs Enquiry detailing a phone call from Michael Kelly, son of the late Virginia Whitfield and an Anglican priest, dated in 2002, references a report of abuse by Robert Boughen on Virginia Whitfield when she was age 12 in the 50s.  Despite this Boughen went on to get a job at Uni and began to groom me for abuse when in the first weeks of my first year in 1969.

I have heard from the friend I told about my abuse when it was happening that her father-in-law, knowing my story, told them on his deathbed that he was a choirboy along with Robert Boughen in the 30s or 40s when, at a Royal School of Church Music camp on Stradbroke Island, he witnessed the then Organist and Choirmaster molesting the boy, Robert Boughen.  As a result of knowing this, and also hearing from another organ student in 1972 (we were 21) that he was "beginning to lust after choirboys", I believe there is an entrenched system of corruption involving both major parties to cover up paedophilia in Qld.

In 2005 I was told by a Registered Psychologist in Queensland that over in the UK, one of the Queen's Organists and Choirmasters had been caught and charged with paedophilia.  This year (2010), David Sanger, who was president of the Royal College of Organists, was found dead after being released on bail, charged with eight counts of gross indecency against boys aged under 16.[ "World renowned organist on sex charges found dead in chapel"].  

In one of the newsletters for a Queensland pipe organ society, a high profile Victorian Advertising Executive sharing the same, uncommon, name with a paedophile described in Dr Reina Michaelsons’s allegations, is acknowledged as a substantial donor of funds.  Victorian child psychologist Dr Reina Michaelson documented the details of alleged high-profile paedophiles. In addition one of the committee members of this organ society has the same name as an individual, identified in the Qld. CJC’s Kimmins Report, as a suspected paedophile.  The surname is not a common one.  It is also noted that this individual attempted to infiltrate the Qld. Children’s Commissioner’s Office.  However, his job application was picked up by the Deputy Commissioner and the plan was thwarted.

It is also noted that Dr. Robert Boughen is patron of this organ society, which has close links to both the Anglican and Catholic Churches in Brisbane.

It would be so good and cleansing for my soul to see justice done, for me, Virginia Whitfield, and countless others whom Boughen abused, and who have been too scared because of his position in society.


Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2003/transcripts/s926706.htm

       http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_994.asp


From: Sylvia Blayse <editme09@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 7:29 AM
Subject: Please add to correspondence from Sylvia Blayse
To: "Child Abuse Royal Commission, Enquiries" <enquiries@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au>

I note with interest the testimony from individuals about the secrecy of institutions, at this point, those run by the Jewish faith.

Recently with the help of John Ellis, I obtained a measure of justice from the Anglican Diocese in the matter of my abuse by Robert Boughen. However, prior to this, 18 years of struggle took place, largely because of the reluctance of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane to hold Boughen accountable, although his crimes against children were well known. The fact that a memo detailing his molestation of a 12 year old child in the 50s had to be seized by the Callaghan Briggs Inquiry in 2002, and was not used to instigate further inquiries into Boughen's behaviour, should have rung alarm bells.Â

Then in 2004, when the Director of Professional Standards was reminded of the memo, she claimed to have "forgotten about it".

After my complaint was substantiated in 2004 by an independent investigator, the Diocese went into overdrive to discredit me. In addition, when Boughen was 'disciplined' by the Diocese of Brisbane, several parishioners left the congregation in high dudgeon, in protest at the treatment of "one of the most revered figures in Australian church music". Boughen was honoured with an OBE earlier in his career.

Please acknowledge that my struggle for justice was marked by the reluctance of this institution to acknowledge that someone in Boughen's position could be guilty of child abuse. Paedophiles are not, as some seem to believe, furtive figures hiding behind raincoats. They are confident of getting away with their crimes, precisely because of a cringe factor in Australian consciousness that stops people from speaking truth to power.

Thank you for your time.


Subject: Re: long term effects of childhood institutionalization
To: "royalcommissionsecretariat@pmc.gov.au ...snip... Bateman <ibrose22@tpg.com.au>

On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 1:01 PM, Sylvia Blayse <editme09@gmail.com> wrote:
These comments are respectfully submitted in view of the absence of any media commentaryÂ
on a subject of vital importance.Â

The immigration department wants to deport a child with autism because of the expense Australia will face in the future because of his disorder.

How ironic! When by the simple expedient of removing a child from their parents (instead of removing the parents too, and sorting the whole family's problems out, or using a CCTV in cases of family violence) the government has created long term disability not just in those individuals, but their families. How does this compare to one child with autism? In our family, nine university degrees between us, and four of us on disability?

My late husband's disability was not recognized until his 40s. Until then he was labelled a dole bludger and I lost the love and support of my family, as well as my home and career. Our children were the victims of prejudice by other children, and their teachers. When Professor Beverley Raphael pronounced, in 1995, that Lewis Blayse was profoundly disabled owing to childhood institutional abuse (otherwise known as "The Homes"), it came as a huge relief to our family. Since then, several more of us have gone on disability.

How much would the government have saved if Lewin Blazevich had not been removed from his mother and father multiple times, starting from when he was a baby? What could we all have contributed to Australian society, had it not been for the short-sightedness of the social work profession?Â

It is not the Churches who decided, in most cases, to destroy families like ours. It was governments, at the suggestion of professionals who really didn't know what they were doing. Why are governments, State and Commonwealth, hiding behind the Churches when it comes to redress discussions? What proportion of those who have testified to the Royal Commission were State Children? This is not a rhetorical question. I expect an answer. Judge McClellan said my late husband was "one of the fathers of the Royal Commission" on the Monday after Lew died. Well here's one of the mothers talking.Â

On behalf of all the other families, 500,000 of them, of former State Wards, I ask: Why are governments taking second place after the churches in redress discussions? Lewin Blazevich and his siblings were not taken on the orders of a churchman, although it was a Salvation Army officer who dragged the screaming toddler from under the bed where he'd hidden in terror. They were taken on the orders of the Police, under the auspices of the State Children Department. Their illiterate father had to sign documents saying that as State Children, they could be hired out, lent out, given away, without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

I don't have that much longer to speak about these matters. Before too many more of us die, please do something. Our children are suffering unspeakably.

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LETTER TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION INTO INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

Date: Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 6:25 PM
Subject: Anglican priests
To: <royalcommissionsecretariat@pmc.gov.au>

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I read today of three Anglican priests, one of them a bishop, disclosing their own abuse.

I wish to draw the Commission's attention to the inter-generational nature of abuse at the Anglican cathedral where I was abused.

A reputable source told me that my own abuser, the Director of Music at the Cathedral, was himself abused as a child by whoever was Director of Music. Several other Choirmasters at the Cathedral have been the subject of allegations. A fellow organ student confided in me, in 1972, that he was "beginning to lust after choirboys". I have previously told the commission his name, and that he is now a choirmaster at another Australian cathedral.

Even more poignant is the story of Michael Kelly, Anglican priest, who shouldered the burden of recounting his mother's deathbed disclosure of her abuse by the same man who abused me.

Before the rest of his family found out, Michael had gone to the Archbishop, not straight after his mother died, but after he saw a story about my abuse, six years later, in the local newspaper. It was this story that enabled him to find the courage to contact the Archbishop. I have attached the memo of the conversation he had with the Archbishop's secretary.

After the O'Callaghan Briggs Inquiry sent to me the memo of Michael's call to the Diocese, I recognized the surname of the victim, Virginia Whitfield. I wrote to her sister, whom I had known at Somerville House.

Shortly thereafter I received a warning letter from O'Callaghan, which the Commission is aware of. I was told that under no circumstances should I contact Virginia's family again. I had spoken once to Michael. He said it made him feel sick to have to work in the Cathedral where his mother's abuser was lauded and revered. I am sure he was not popular with some family members for passing on his mother's deathbed disclosure. Apparently his father had not known she had been abused. 

Michael told me that his mother had inexplicably (to her family) asked to be removed from Somerville House and sent to boarding school, after she was 12. My own sister, Valerie Joy, knew Virginia when they were at primary school. When she caught up with her again at university, she said Virginia seemed to have lost her spirit.

Michael must have loved his mother to be able to brave the censure he seems to have received for telling what happened to her. There has been not a whisper about her abuse since 2002, although I have tried and tried to tell her story; she is the only other victim of my abuser to have been brave enough to speak, and that only because she was dying, I believe.

The family's silence becomes easier to understand when two facts are considered.

1. Virginia's sister is married to John Story, Chancellor of University of Queensland, which employed
her abuser from the 60s until his retirement.

2. Boughen's reputation as a sexual predator was an open secret in Brisbane before he was employed by the university.

Kindly take note of these factors, and in addition, that Boughen was employed at the Church of England Grammar School East Brisbane, where he had a reputation for cruelty to little boys.

Sincerely

Sylvia Blayse


From: Sylvia Blayse <editme09@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 2, 2017 at 6:48 AM
Subject: Aren't 17 year old university students children?
To:  <royalcommissionsecretariat@pmc.gov.au>


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/sex-crime-crackdown-proposes-jail-over-failing-to-protect-children/news-story/08d0a32e197dd040f9bbc72bb2d2d34d

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/sex-crime-crackdown-proposes-jail-over-failing-to-protect-children/news-story/08d0a32e197dd040f9bbc72bb2d2d34d


TO WHOM IT SHOULD CONCERN

I note the proposed legislation mentioned in the article above does not mention universities among the institutions
where failure to protect a child from a known sexual predator will become a crime.

My abuser, Robert Boughen, is a known sexual predator as previously reported to the Commission.
A women (now in her 70s) reported that students "knew about that dreadful man".
Also the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane's Secretary to Archbishop Hollingworth
informed me that Boughen's reputation was well known throughout the Diocese.

So many people were in a position to prevent my abuse occurring in 1969. None of them did.
By 1969, Robert Boughen's reputation as a sexual predator was well known. However, nobody
thought to warn me about him or to take steps to protect me from being trapped with him in an
isolated, difficult to access organ loft.

Please add first year University students to the list of vulnerable children needing protection
from predators like Robert Boughen OBE.

The University of Queensland has begun to respond to my complaint. However, they
have so far only offered to hold an internal inquiry. This is not good enough. The University
needs to be made aware of the proposed legislation, and should acknowledge that
a 17 year old child also needs protection.

Sincerely
Sylvia Tunley Blayse


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Supporting documents for Media Release:

1.      Sylvia Blayse Original Statement 1997

2.      UQ Response 1996

3.      Letter to UQ 2003

4.      UQ Response 2003

5.      Letter to UQ 2004

6.      UQ Response 2004

7.      Sylvia Tunley Blayse Outcomes

8.      UQ To inaugurate the Around the Organ series

9.      Simon Birmingham Letter July 2018


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