WA child migrants tell of lost innocence at royal commission into child sex abuse, by Aleisha Orr, WA Today (April 29, 2014)

WA child migrants tell of lost innocence at royal commission into child sex abuse

An overwhelming sense of loss has come through in the evidence given by witnesses at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Nine of 11 men who were sexually abused as children while in the care of Christian Brothers in Western Australian institutions, who are set to speak as part of public hearings in Perth, have talked about their experiences.

“I lost my country, I lost my language, I lost my culture, I lost my family and I lost any chance of a decent career,” Raphael Ellul told the commission at the second day of hearings.

Mr Ellul was a child migrant from Malta who was sent to Australia to “obtain a better future”, which he described as “rubbish”.

He arrived in Australia in 1960 at age 10 and was sent to St Mary's Agricultural School in Tardun.

Mr Elull was not allowed to speak Maltese even though he knew no English and took three years to pick up enough Pidgin English “to get by”.

At 16, he left Tardun with only broken English, telling the hearing he was still embarrassed and frustrated by his illiteracy, which made it difficult to do everyday activities, such as filling out forms.

Children from Malta, United Kingdom and Australia were taken into the Christian Brothers’ care in WA.

A common cycle of physical, psychological and sexual abuse was spoken of by all witnesses at the commission.

Another witness, a man known as VG, spoke about coming from a large, close family in Malta.

He said he was even consulted about going to Australia.

A parish priest visited and told his mother of a Catholic Church scheme which would give children of sole parents free education.

When he said he wanted to work in electronics, the priest told VG this would be achieved with hard work and going to Australia would provide more opportunity.

“The priest had told my mother that the children who already went to Australia were already doing well and this kind of opportunity only comes up once in a lifetime.”

When he arrived in Australia he asked another boy at St Mary’s what the boys wore to school, only to be told they were “working boys and they didn’t go to school”.

“I told the boy there must be some mistake,” VG said.

When VG approached one of the brothers he was told “you do what I tell you, you don’t tell us” and was slapped across the face.

He said his glasses were broken during that altercation and had to wear years after.

VG went on to be repeatedly sexually abused at Tardun, describing the room brothers took boys into as a “den”.

“I lost my childhood,” he told the commission.

He even spoke about his latest attempt to take his life which was stopped by his son.

“I have taken many types of medication, however, no amount of medication will be able to erase my memories.”

Another witness, known as VI spoke about abuse he suffered at Castledare Junior Orphanage as a child.

He said since the abuse he did not trust people who were nice to him as his main abuser was kind in the beginning.

He said the abuse had impacted on his ability to parent.

VI said he would never change his children’s nappies as he was worried about what thoughts he would have or whether he might do something inappropriate.

He said, although he had a good relationship with his children and grandchildren, he limited his behaviour around them.

“Today my children and my grandchildren are my life," he said.

The hearing will continue on Wednesday.