Paedophile Ring Allegedly Preyed on Boys in Church Care

By Paul Bibby
Sydney Morning Herald
February 3, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/national/paedophile-ring-allegedly-preyed-on-boys-in-church-care-20140203-31xb4.html

Whistleblower: Salvation Army major Cliff Randall is applauded as he leaves the royal commission after giving evidence about the church's Indooroopilly boys' home

Boys living at a Queensland Salvation Army home in the 1970s were allegedly enticed into a paedophile ring run by a wealthy businessman who sexually abused them, and then flew them to the Sydney home of a ''top chef'' who assaulted them again, the royal commission has heard.

One of the boys allegedly never came back. One of his friends reportedly said he had ended up ''at the bottom of Sydney Harbour''.

The revelations came from a now-retired Salvation Army officer who blew the whistle on the physical and sexual abuse inflicted on boys at the Indooroopilly boys home in Brisbane where he worked as a ''house parent'' from 1972 to 1975.

The school is one of four in Queensland and NSW being examined as part of the commission's investigations into abuse within the Salvation Army and its response.

The whistleblower, Major Clifford Randall, told the hearing boys would abscond from the home for days at a time and return with stories of participating in a child abuse racket in Brisbane and in Paddington in Sydney.

''They were picked up as soon as they got outside the home boundaries; they would get out at night time,'' said Major Randall, who returned to the Salvation Army after being dismissed in 1975.

''They were met outside and taken to this place. They were given drinks and chocolates and everything and then, the next day they were - well, they were used that day in Brisbane and the next day they were sent down to Sydney.''

Major Randall said the boys had reported they were being abused by a millionaire hardware store owner in Brisbane, though they never referred to him by name.

In Sydney their alleged abuser was ''a man who owned a restaurant and was a top chef''. Again, no name was used.

The boys were allegedly then left to make their own way back to the home, with one allegedly saying he was abused by truck drivers while hitch-hiking back to Brisbane.

Another allegedly went missing and never came back.

''I was informed that he was one of the only people who could link the two people connected with this child abuse racket,'' Major Randall said.

''It was said to me that he was at the bottom of Sydney Harbour.''

Major Randall conceded that ''it was hard to get the truth'' out of the boys.

''I reported it to the manager and he dismissed it as just some kind of fantasy story that the boys were telling me,'' he said.

That manager was Captain John McIver, the head of the home and the alleged perpetrator of extreme physical and sexual abuse.

Major Randall said a particularly brutal beating of one of the boys by Captain McIver in 1975 led him to intervene and then inform the Queensland Department of Community Services about the abuse at Indooroopilly.

He said the boy had spun around while Captain McIver was whipping his genitals and caused him to break a cuff link on the table.

''McIver just went crazy … he slammed the boy into the wall, hitting his face and dislocating his shoulder.

''I threw him into his chair and said 'If you want to hit somebody, hit somebody your own size'.''

When Captain McIver allegedly elected to ''pop the boy's shoulder back in with a tennis ball'' rather than allowing him to be taken to hospital Major Randall allegedly contacted Community Services.

The commission continues.