Abuse Survivor Speaks to Royal Commission

By Elloise Farrow-Smith
ABC News
July 4, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-04/abuse-commission/4799300?section=nsw

An abuse survivor said the Royal Commission into child abuse had given him the chance to pour his heart out for the first time.

Richard 'Tommy' Campion said he was sexually and physically abused during the 14 years that he lived at the Church of England North Coast Children's Home in Lismore.

He spoke with members of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for two hours yesterday at a Brisbane hotel.

Mr Campion has been battling for recognition from the Anglican Church for 8 years and said this was the first time his pain has had a hearing.

"I spoke to a few people but to people I can pour my heart out to and they are going to do something about it well it was the most extraordinary thing," he said.

"To be able to walk into that room and we talked and they were sweet as a nut and so pleasant and gentle but yet they were on the ball, they wanted the truth and they wanted to know everything," Mr Campion said.

In May this year, the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton resigned, saying he failed in his duty to pass on complaints about the Lismore home to the church's Professional Standards Director.

Bishop Keith Slater said the legal liability of so many complaints from residents at the Church of England North Coast Children's Home, initially clouded the matter.

But Mr Campion claims the bishop didn't want to hear his complaints and Mr Campion wrote hundreds of letters to Bishop Slater and others in the Anglican Church hierarchy.

Mr Campion said he's aware of the limitations of the commission but hopes it will force churches and other institutions to confront the past.

"They can only offer recommendations, they can recommend things to the police and they can recommend things to the church," he said.

"I am hoping so and I believe that they will and I believe that they will do that with the Anglican Church and any other church, that's what they are there for, where anyone is abused I am hoping and I am sure the police would take action on it," Mr Campion said.