Brutal Assaults at a Nsw Orphanage
By Annette Blackwell
[with video] Children were beaten until they were bloodied and forced into sex with older residents at a NSW orphanage run by the Anglican church, the royal commission has heard. On an emotional day at the commission, one former resident of the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore described himself and other abuse victims as the "walking dead", while those who took their own lives are the lucky ones. Other children, some as young as five, were allegedly forced to have oral sex with older residents. The national royal commission into institutional responses to child sex is hearing from people who were residents at the Lismore home in the Anglican diocese of Grafton between 1944 and 1985. In a tearful voice, a witness called CK, who was placed in the home aged three with his six-year-old brother in 1949, told how his older sibling used to protect him until he was moved to another home when CK was eight. Traumatised by the separation, CK was physically, sexually and psychological abused until he left the North Coast Children's Home in 1958. In the 1980s, CK was diagnosed with depression and attempted suicide several times. He told of returning to St Andrews Church, where he had been an altar boy, adjacent to the Lismore home. He wandered the grounds and went to a service celebrating the re-opening of the bell tower - and the memories came flooding back. "This bell tower is where continual sexual depravity occurred," he told the commission. He told of being brought there after services and being fondled, while a priest masturbated. "We had no words for it then. Now it would be known as a pedophile ring," CK said. "The priests seemed kind, but I did not know what sex was, the affection they showed was of a sexual nature." CK also told of a "cleansing process" where he had to lie naked on the floor of the rectory while the minister put what appeared to be a cross on him and licked it down to his groin. CK said he thought it was a religious thing and used to take younger kids out of bed and do it to them. "Forgive me," he said. "The ones who suicided are the lucky ones, we are the walking dead who remain." He told the hearing he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but was hoping for death to stop the pain of his life. He told of beatings that left him scarred and being left at a table for 10 hours because he could not eat the food. "If you threw up they made you eat the vomit and I was not going to do that." CK, who was in the home because his mother had died and his father was violent, witnessed three children beaten in a shower by a matron until blood ran into the drain. He cannot bear the colour red. In his opening statement, counsel assisting the commission Simeon Beckett said there would be evidence of oral and anal sex with very young children. CK joined a group claim started by Tommy Campion, also a victim of abuse at the home. In evidence on Monday, Mr Campion told of his growing anger as the Anglican church tried to distance themselves from the home and liability for what happened. He and his sister did not accept the final group settlement in March 2007, which saw $825,000 split among a group of 40 claimants. They each received about $10,000 after legal costs. Mr Campion said when he continued his action for a care package he was written to by then Bishop Keith Slater saying his claim "would actually be a betrayal of all those whom you encouraged to make a claim with you through your lawyer". This made him even angrier. The commission, which is continuing, will explore why Bishop Slater, who has just retired, took that approach. Rev Dr Phillip Aspinall, Primate of the Anglican Church in Australia and Archbishop of the Diocese of Brisbane, will also give evidence.
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