Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission: Victims Tell of Anger at Salvation Army over Sexual and Physical Abuse at Children's Homes

By Thomas Oriti
ABC News
March 28, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-28/child-sex-abuse-victim-beaten-and-locked-up/5351414


A woman has told an inquiry she was whipped, humiliated and denied basic needs at a Salvation Army children's home in Queensland.

The examination of the Salvation Army by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has so far concentrated on abuse at the charity's boys' homes.

Cherryl Eldridge today became the first woman to tell the commission of abuse at the hands of Salvation Army officers, and also criticised the charity's treatment of abuse victims.

She was taken to a children's home at Toowoomba as a six-year-old girl, after being told her parents could not care for her.

The 61-year-old told the commission hearing in Sydney she remembered wetting the bed and having the sheets rubbed in her face.

"I was denied access to basic necessities," she told the hearing.

"I was not issued a bra or deodorant and this caused me humiliation at school."

Mrs Eldridge says access to sanitary pads was also restricted.

The hearing was told a matron would whip the girl's naked body, which Mrs Eldridge said she believed was done for sexual gratification.

"I have found it difficult to have long and affectionate relationships, because I was denied this as a child," she told the hearing.

Mrs Eldridge was later offered $40,000 by the Salvation Army, which she described as "shut-up money".

The former resident took exception to a question from the lawyer representing the Salvation Army, Kate Eastman.

"Have you given some thought as to what you would like to now see by way of an apology?" Ms Eastman asked.

"I find the question you're asking me today to be offensive," Mrs Eldridge responded.

"If you, the Salvation Army, wanted to give me a genuine apology and really mean it, you wouldn't be asking me the question.

"I don't think the Salvation Army can assist me any more."

Staff suited to 'Middle Ages slavery camp'

Earlier a former resident of another Salvation Army home in Queensland told the commission he was beaten and held in solitary confinement.

The man, known only as JE, told the hearing that when he was a young boy he was forced to protect his sisters and mother, who were being abused by his father.

His father sent him away, telling a judge that he was out of control.

JE ended up at the Salvation Army's Riverview Farm, south-west of Brisbane, when he was 15 in the late 1960s.

PHOTO: A victim of child sex abuse says he was placed in solitary confinement at Riverview. (News Online)

The man has told the hearing staff at the home in Ipswich "would have been more suitably engaged in a Middle Ages slavery camp".

He says boys were bashed and raped, and remembers being locked in solitary confinement for three days after fighting with some boys who were racially abusing him.

"I remember the floor of the room being wooden and full of splinters," he told the hearing.

"There was no light, no toilet, not even a bucket. If you had to go to the toilet, you had to just go and the army officers would throw some newspaper at you to clean it up.

"You had to sleep on that same floor that you'd been forced to go to the toilet on."

Salvation Army apologised for 'unpleasant' experiences

JE complained to the Salvation Army in 2008.

The commission has been told the organisation apologised for any "unpleasant" experiences, but offered no compensation because it could not identify the room where he was confined.

"To me, it sounded like a letter that you get from a hotel when you complain about the room," JE told the hearing.

"I did not consider it an adequate apology, not by a long shot."

JE wrote back to the Salvation Army, complaining the organisation had not followed its complaints handling process. He was eventually paid $20,000.

"In my experience, the Salvation Army are awful people to deal with," he said.

Ms Eastman asked JE whether it would help him if he spoke to senior staff from the organisation, some of whom were in the room.

"If I see one of those uniforms come within a metre of me, you'd better be there," he replied.

The 10th royal commission inquiry, and the second concerning the Salvation Army, is examining the way the religious organisation handled both historical and more recent claims of child sexual abuse.

It aims to explore the experiences of victims, who have been through the Salvation Army's claims process - as well as review disciplinary steps taken against the alleged perpetrators.

The complaints process has been developed substantially since the 1990s due to an increase in claims, including the establishment of the Personal Injuries Complaints Committee in 1997.

The committee was offering small amounts of money to victims by 2000, and the amount has steadily increased, but some victims have told the commission they felt "worse off" after going through the process.

Victims have given evidence saying the amount of compensation was inconsistent with other people who had endured similar trauma, and the apology from the Salvation Army seemed trivial.