Horrifying Evidence from Former Orphans of North Coast Children's Home

The ABC - PM
November 18, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3893596.htm?site=northcoast

[with audio]

MARK COLVIN: The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard horrific personal accounts from former residents of the New South Wales North Coast Children's Home.

The national inquiry is delving into the stories of children who were abused at the Anglican-run children's home between the 1940s and 1980s and how the Church responded to allegations over the past decade.

Witnesses at the hearings in Sydney today told harrowing tales from the Lismore orphanage of children living in appalling deprivation, accompanied by extreme brutality and ritualised sexual abuse.

Emily Bourke has this report, and a warning that some of the content in this report may distress some listeners.

EMILY BOURKE: The royal commission's third public hearing has heard of childhoods ruined and adult lives cut short by suicide as result of abuse that occurred in the North Coast Children's Home which was run by the Anglican Church.

CK: The pain that we have, we will take to the grave. The ones who have suicided, they're possibly the lucky ones. We're the living dead that remain.

EMILY BOURKE: Former resident, CK, described humiliation, deprivation and arbitrary punishment by staff.

CK: We had no shoes. We had no clothes. I remember one time I must have sat at a table about for 10 hours as punishment because I wouldn't eat the food that they'd given me. Because if you threw up they would make you eat the vomit.

There was the sexual abuse in the bell tower, and it was a favourite place because it was out of the way, no-one would come there.

EMILY BOURKE: He went on to describe in graphic detail a quasi-religious sexual ritual, which the abusing priest called a cleansing ceremony.

CK then said that he himself also performed this on other children in the home.

He then detailed how the Church tried to stymie his efforts to seek justice decades later.

CK: Yes, they did quite a good jig around, virtually saying that they weren't responsible. They found old laws which disconnected them to the home, but there were bold signs up there saying everything what it was and who it belonged to.

SIMEON BECKETT: When you say bold signs, what are you referring to?

CK: That we used to have the Anglican Church, the Church of England Children's Home at the front in wrought iron.

EMILY BOURKE: The Anglican Church is being called on to explain its response to the victims who came forward, and the various compensation packages it offered between 2005 and 2011.

The inquiry is looking at whether the Church handled the claims in a consistent and fair manner, and in keeping with its own policies.

Counsel assisting, Simeon Beckett, says the evidence shows the Diocese of Grafton tried to limit its legal exposure.

SIMEON BECKETT: The diocese denied liability and challenged the group's assertion that the diocese, the corporate trustees or the bishop was liable for the abuse that had occurred. It relied on a limitations defence, because the claims related to conduct some decades old. The evidence is likely to reveal that the denial of an association between the home and the Diocese of Grafton produced a negative response from many of the claimants.

EMILY BOURKE: And he said the examination of the Church's response will go further.

SIMEON BECKETT: The evidence is likely to reveal that a number of allegations of sexual abuse were reported to the Diocese of Grafton but were not reported to the police.

EMILY BOURKE: Tommy Campion led the charge against the Church in 2005.

Under questioning he described one meeting with the former registrar of the Diocese of Grafton.

TOMMY CAMPION: Pat Comben walked out at one stage, another time he was sitting there while he was follow a negotiating with his feet up on the chair.

SIMEON BECKETT: Yes.

TOMMY CAMPION: Yes that's right, he put his feet up on the chair and walked out, and also said at least the children had a roof over their heads.

SIMEON BECKETT: Yes, and you were referring to...

TOMMY CAMPION: Referring to the claimants.

SIMEON BECKETT: How better could the Diocese of Grafton have handled your claim and that of the other group claims?

TOMMY CAMPION: If they had asked people to come forward individually and talk to the Church and come to a good decision with them, none of this would be happening today. But they didn't. They decided to fight back, and that is atrocious.

EMILY BOURKE: Over the coming days the inquiry will hear from the Anglican Primate of Australia, Phillip Aspinall, on his role in negotiating settlements with former residents.

Counsel assisting, Simeon Beckett.

SIMEON BECKETT: As the royal commission is likely to hear, the Anglican Church represents itself as the Anglican Church of Australia, a national body. An issue which will be explored as the relationship of the Primate and the General Synod, with a diocese, which has a limited financial capacity to respond to large numbers of claims. The royal commission will consider whether there is a place for dioceses which are better resourced to contribute to other dioceses which are less well resourced, so as to meet the obligations of the Church.

EMILY BOURKE: Two months ago, the Anglican Church issued a public apology.

And the Diocese of Grafton now says there's no doubt about the responsibility it had for the residents of the North Coast Children's Home.

MARK COLVIN: Emily Bourke.