Royal Commission Let-Down OR: Is the Salvation Army Being PROTECTED?

The Lewisblayse.net
January 7, 2014

http://lewisblayse.net/

Another (necessarily) first person piece today:

The Salvation Army Algate Boys’ Home was to be the topic for today’s blog, but another matter has arisen, so I will cover Algate soon. This is a very long posting, but I do hope some people will read it through to the end.

The next hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will cover four Boys’ Homes which were operated by the Salvation Army. One of those Homes will be the Indooroopilly Boys’ Home (“Alkira”) in Brisbane, Queensland State.

I was in that Home at the time when serious abuses occurred, and when two of the principal Salvation Army officers to be investigated by the Commission were there – Bennett and Wilson. I feel very strongly that I have a right to present a submission, and to appear at the hearing to give oral evidence.

Apparently, this is beginning to look unlikely. Consequently, I will place some things on the record in this blog.

I have been informed by a Commission representative, Francine Ralph, that my case falls within the terms of reference of the enquiry. Unfortunately, this was over the phone, so no record exists (I was not informed the conversation was being recorded).

I also met the deadline of 18^th December to file the formal papers requesting to appear and present a submission. So, why am I so concerned? And does it matter to anyone but me?

As I have stated in a previous posting, I have been on the case about Alkira for over 50 years, following a promise to the other boys at the Home that I would get something done about it when I got out of the Home.

In 1961, at age 12, I went with my father to see my local Member of Parliament, Sir James Killen, and told him about the abuses at the Home. I then, thinking I had fulfilled my obligations, tried to forget about the Homes and pursued my dream of becoming a research scientist in the field of neuro-biochemistry, hoping to study the chemical basis of schizophrenia. (I had been in the Homes because of my mother’s hospitalization with the condition).