Brother thrilled at beating boys: inquiry

Australian Teacher Magazine
April 29, 2014

http://www.ozteacher.com.au/news/wa/brother-thrilled-at-beating-boys-inquiry/27960

PERTH, April 29 – A Christian Brother known for extreme violence at a West Australian boys’ school seemed to get a sexual thrill out of beating boys for minor transgressions, a survivor has told a royal commission.

Brother Bruno Doyle tried to stop the rampant sex abuse at St Joseph’s Farm and Trade School in Bindoon when he took over as head of the school in 1959, but he was still violent and sadistic, the commission heard.

The witness, known as VV, on Tuesday told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual abuse he was once beaten almost unconscious by Brother Doyle.

The Christian Brother once “worked himself into a rage” and had an erection while beating VV.

“It makes sense to me now. I always understood that Doyle was particularly nasty and sadistic,” he said.

“And now I realise that the passion in these violent assaults may have been inflamed by his own desires.”

But VV said as far as he was aware Brother Doyle did not commit acts of sexual abuse.

“On the contrary, he attempted to identify the perpetrators and stop that type of conduct occurring,” he said.

“His predominant form of abuse was physical – hitting, kicking and punching students.”

While at Bindoon, VV was sexually abused by nine brothers and five boys.

Two weeks after arriving there at age nine, he was raped by Brother Christopher Angus.

After the attack, VV was dumped in a 44-gallon drum of water and told to clean himself up.

After being raped by a Brother Parker at the school, VV was told by a priest identified as Father Gerard he had sinned and needed to make himself less attractive.

During the second day of hearings in Perth, witnesses told of ongoing physical, sexual and psychological abuse at Bindoon, St Joseph’s Agricultural School, Tardun, Castledare Junior Orphanage and St Vincent’s Orphanage, Clontarf.

At Bindoon, young boys were picked at random and publicly beaten during meals, the commission heard, while others were targeted frequently for rape.

Promises of education, abundant fruit, horse rides and kangaroos were lies, the commission heard, and brothers would groom boys with promises of parcels of land.

Years after he left Bindoon, VV was offered $20,000 and later $40,000 compensation by the Catholic Church, a process that involved meetings with officials who intensely questioned him.

“I felt like a child again trying to defend myself,” he said.

A resident at Tardun, VG, told the commission boys doing hard physical labour were tied just out of reach of a water tap and forced to stay there for hours.

Boys at Tardun were beaten with leather straps about an inch thick and three inches wide, with a thick, heavy buckle attached.

Once, when an older boy retaliated against the abuse, three brothers held him down and beat him.

“I thought the brothers were going to kill him,” VG said.

When another brother, known as Simon, tried to rape VG, he reacted by hitting the man in the stomach with a chair.

The brother then knocked him unconscious by beating him with the strap.

Later in life, VG tried to commit suicide numerous times.

Over the next two weeks the commission will hear evidence on how the Christian Brothers responded to allegations of abuse.

It will also hear evidence from representatives of WA government departments, including the acting director of public prosecutions.