Harrowing Evidence against Anglican Diocese in Grafton Given at Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse

By Matthew Benns
The Herald Sun
November 19, 2013

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/harrowing-evidence-against-anglican-diocese-in-grafton-given-at-royal-commission-into-child-sexual-abuse/story-fni0fee2-1226763370813

Former acting registrar for the Diocese of Grafton Anne Hywood leaving the Royal Commision today.

YOUNG children would chant prayers in their dark church dormitory while an Anglican Minister fondled one of them under their bed clothes, the royal commission into child sexual abuse heard today.

One of the victims from the former North Coast Children's Home in Lismore wrote a harrowing letter, years later, to the Anglican Diocese in Grafton to tell how children would say special prayers "and then have a Minister fondle your little body."

"He would hear our prayers in the dark dormitory at the end of the home. A chair pulled to the chosen child's bed and as all chanted the prayers his hands would wander over the small budding body," wrote the victim, who can only be identified as CA.

"His mouth on lips that had never known a gentle human touch whilst the tongue explored a mouth that needed to scream," wrote the female victim, now aged 58.

"Is it any wonder in later years we never knew what to do when someone reached out to us?"

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CA also told how her severely asthmatic brother was whipped after refusing to say the Apostles' Creed. It was the beating that finally broke him.

"He was beaten until his back was laid open and bleeding, not once but over and over, the scars to heal in welts to this day visible and a constant reminder of the sheer brutality we lived under.

"No one soothed his open wounds. No one helped him up from the floor," she wrote.

In a statement read by counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Simon Beckett, CA said she was bitterly disappointed at the response to her letter, particularly as more victims from the home came forward to claim compensation.

"To me it seemed that the Anglican Church began denying what had happened and I felt that I was being accused of lying about my experiences in the home."

She blamed a subsequent stroke on the stress brought on by her ongoing battle for compensation.

The royal commission is examining the response of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton to the claims of child abuse at the Lismore home. One of its executives appeared before the commission yesterday.

Former Acting Registrar Anne Hywood said a letter from CA was among files she found in the office of Bishop Keith Slater, who had not replied to her personally.

"She received a letter from the diocesan solicitor that said 'our file on you is closed'," said Ms Hywood. "I think it was an appalling pastoral response."

Almost 40 victims eventually settled with the church but Ms Hywood said that should not have meant other victims "had missed the boat" and had only one chance to claim compensation.

She was also concerned to find an unanswered 18 month old letter from another victim alleging sexual abuse among confidential files in Bishop Slater's office.

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She arranged for the files on the victims to be boxed up and personally drove them to the Professional Standards Director in Newcastle, who was furious protocols had been ignored and letters from claimants alleging abuse had not been forwarded to him.

Ms Hywood was also concerned that the diocese only employed the Professional Standards Director on a part time basis. "What it demonstrated to me is that the Diocese had not made a full commitment to the professional standards process," she said.

It was crucial the Professional Standard Director receive all correspondence to corroborate other stories and provide counselling and support for victims, she said.

Yesterday the Diocese issued a press release apparently distancing itself from the four former executives listed to appear before the commission. "All four former executives have ceased their professional ties with the Diocese," it said.

"We wish to make it very clear, that whatever shortcomings and failures there may have been dealing with these issues in the past we have made major changes in attitude, protocol and response.

"The Diocese now is totally committed to facing its responsibilities and introducing a new and wholly appropriate attitude and response to any form of abuse experienced by persons for whom we have responsibility and duty of care."